Re: Lucy's current status -- in the fossil record or out?
Susan S. Chin (susansf@netcom.com)
Sat, 28 Dec 1996 00:41:53 GMT
Barry Mennen (barrym2@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
In response to my post of not too long ago:
: >However, in that infamous Walter Cronkite special featuring Johanson
: and
: >Richard Leakey...when asked to draw *his* version of the human family
: >tree.... all Leakey could do was to draw one big "?" depicting his
: >hypothesis of early African hominid phylogeny. I'll take afarensis
: over a
: >big "?" any day... less explaining to do, why these other fossils
: haven't
: >yet been found. If and unless we do, there is no good reason afarensis
: >cannot be an early ancestor to modern humans.
: >
: >Susan
: Excuse me Susan, but there is one good reason why A. afarensis cannot
: be an early human ancestor: the fossil was not found by a Leakey or
: anyone in their camp. ;-)
: Barry
Actually, the way I hear it, afarensis could have been an early human
ancestor according to the Leakey camp... if J&W had split up the Hadar
material into two species... No wait, then afarensis would be an
evolutionary dead end co-existing with a Homo species with no known cranial
elements. That won't do. Sorry :)
In this instance, the lumpers triumphed over the splitters (biased though
I may be).
Susan
--
susansf@netcom.com
|