What Paleoanthropologists Want to Discover

This image depicts the "linear evolution theory" and is called the "March of Progress" image. However, the evidence of many groups of archaic humans living at the same time requires a new hypothesis. The linear evolution theory was dismissed 50 years ago. If similar images appear in science texts, it reveals how most textbooks are 40-50 years behind the front edge of the sciences.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Paleoanthropologists recognize that there were many groups of archaic humans. Among them were the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. A recent genome study revealed that the Denisovans "diverged from Neanderthals 400,000 years ago and that at least two distinct Denisovan populations mixed with ancestors of present-day Asians."

There are limited physical remains of Denisovans. These include a finger bone, three teeth, and a skull fragment from the Denisova Cave; and a jawbone and the Xiahe mandible from Baishiya Karst Cave at the northeastern Tibetan Plateau.

In a November 8, 2024 interview, Dr. L. Ongaro said, “It’s a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and neatly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn the more we realize interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped to shape the people we are today."

Richard Leakey long ago abandoned the linear evolution misconception, saying:

Current findings on human evolution have brought us to the position where much of what we believed to have theoretically happened proves to be incorrect. Much that is in the textbooks, much that is still being taught in universities about human evolution is no longer true, but it continues to be taught because the implications of recent discoveries are insufficiently understood.

It was principally Weidenreich, Le Gros Clark, and a few of the people of that generation, just previous to mine, who put forward and strongly defended the idea that man had gone through a very simple series of stages of evolution: the pongid stage, an Australopithecine stage, a Pithecanthropus stage, and then man as we know him today. Theoretically, this had always seemed highly unlikely to some of us, since it meant that man had done something which no other mammal had done: evolved in a single straight line instead of having one main branch, with many experimental side branches which failed to make the grade. Yet the old theory persists. Linked with it is the concept, still very, very widely taught and very widely believed, that man in the relatively near past was at a pongid or ape stage of evolution. In such a very short time, three or four million years, as the books and many of my colleagues put it, we are supposed to have lost our huge canine teeth, lost our simian shelves, lost our long, brachiating arms, ceased to dwell in the trees, and many other similar but, I fear, erroneous concepts. These were theories which in the light of current facts no longer stand up."

Anthropologists such as John Hawks note that there is a wider range of anatomical features among Neanderthals than is generally recognized. Hawks also believes that there are limits to what can be determined by genetic tests of archaic fossils. He relies on morphological studies. 

The story of human origins cannot be understood from DNA alone. That can take us back only to about 500,000 years ago. What about the humans who lived before that? We have artifactual evidence of humans that date to over 500,000 years ago. Some human fossils found in Eastern Africa date to well before 500,000 years ago.

When Jeremy DeSilva, a British anthropologist, compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus fossils of human ancestors ("hominins") between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle bones are quite distinct from those of apes.

The discovery of a complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensis at Hadar that shows the deep, flat base and tarsal facets that "imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans." (Carol Ward, William H. Kimbel, Donald C. Johanson, Feb. 2011) 

The Ward, Kimbel and Johanson study reveals how scientists can change their minds. Donald Johanson was the person who announced to the world that Lucy was "ape of the South" or Australopithecus. Has he since reconsidered that assessment?

Excavations at the Boker Tachtit archaeological site in the Negev Desert revealed that modern humans and Neanderthals lived together.

Today various groups of Australopithecus are recognized. Some are gracile and others are robust. There are Australopithecus afarensis (including Lucy), Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus sediba, Kenyanthropus platyops, and "robust" specimens like Paranthropus robustus and Paranthropus aethiopicus.

In 2011 researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth of four individuals in the Afar region of Ethiopia that date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years. These archaic humans were alive at the same time as other groups of early humans, suggesting that it is time to abandon the linear evolution hypothesis. Clearly, there were more archaic humans living 3 million years ago than is generally recognized. How they may be related is the great question facing paleoanthropologists.

Related reading: A look at the Neanderthal from Altamura, John Hawks; Can Molecular Models be aligned with Human Morphology?; Many Groups of Archaic Humans (video)

Tidal Changes in the Bay of Fundy

 

Low tide at Alma in New Brunswick.

The Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada has the highest tides of any place on Earth. There are two high tides and two low tides every 24-hour period in the Bay. Twice every day the Bay fills and empties of a billion tons of water during each tide cycle. That is more than the flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers combined. 

The Earth's average tide-driven variation in sea level is three feet, but the water level near Wolfville, in Nova Scotia's Minas Basin, can be as much as 53 feet (16 meters) higher than at low tide.

At Fundy National Park, the difference between high and low tide can be as much as 12 meters or 39 feet. At the head of the bay, the tide can rise 16 meters or 53 feet, the height of a four-story building.

When the tides recede, they leave behind beaches of cobbles, shale, pebbles, sand, or mud flats, and strand small boats such as shown above at the village of Alma.

Ocean tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on Earth. Tides are a type of wave motion that affect water levels. Along the coasts, the tides typically reach high tide and ebb tide twice a day, about six hours apart (called a semi-diurnal tide). Tidal actions are more evident when the bodies of water are large or connect to oceans.

Even lakes have tides, though the effects are less obvious. One can note changes in the waves by the sloshing back and forth. On smaller bodies of water, the more significant geostrophic forces are the winds and barometric pressure.

When a bay is open to the ocean, such the Bay of Fundy, the rise and fall of the tide feeds energy into the enclosure periodically and cyclically. Tidal effects depend a great deal on the configuration and location of the shoreline. It is possible for tides to cause water systems to flow in the opposite direction than they normally flow. For example, at low tide the St. John River surges over the rapids at Reversing Falls. At high tide, the tide of the Bay of Fundy forces the Falls to flow backwards. 

Related reading: What are tides? (noaa.gov); Tides | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (noaa.gov); Bay of Fundy: The Highest Tides in the World | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (noaa.gov)

Hydras May be Clue to Cancerous tumors

 

Freshwater hydra feeding.

Photo credit: Motic America, May 17, 2022

Transmissible cancers are rare. Scientists have spotted only about a dozen examples, mostly in mussels and their relatives.

Transmissible cancers cells can spread from one individual to another, like an infectious disease. Two transmissible tumors nearly wiped out the Tasmanian devil. Another causes unsightly tumors in dogs’ genitals.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists report the spontaneous generation of transmissible tumors in the lab. The discovery was made in small, anemone like freshwater animals named hydras that are known to be cancer prone. Researchers hope the finding will help them better understand how these tumors develop, evolve, and spread, which could ultimately help prevent or control transmissible cancers in wildlife.

Hydras might seem to be an unexpected choice for researching cancer, but the freshwater cnidarian Hydra oligactis readily develop tumors when overfed in captivity, which makes them an excellent choice for studying how cancers arise. They reproduce asexually by generating clones of themselves through “budding." The buds form from the body wall, grow into miniature adults and break away when mature. These creatures can help researchers gain insight into the genetics of cancer.

Read more here: ‘Immortal’ creatures may reveal clues to contagious cancers | Science | AAAS

Many Groups of Archaic Humans

 

Mary and Louis Leakey in 1962.

“People frequently ask me why I devote so much time to seeking out facts about man’s past…the past shows clearly that we all have a common origin and that our differences in race, color, and creed are only superficial.”-Louis Leakey

Louis S.B. Leakey was an African-born English anthropologist. He was born Aug. 7, 1903, in Kabete, Kenya. His parents were Anglican missionaries among the Kikuyu people of East Africa. Louis and his second wife Mary established an excavation site at Olduvai Gorge to search for fossils. The team made unprecedented discoveries of hominids millions of years old, including H. habilis and H. erectus. Leakey died on October 1, 1972.

Louis and Mary Leakey's legacy cannot be overstated. Their work had a tremendous impact on our understanding of human origins. The Leakeys recognized that there were various archaic humans living millions of years ago. In 1965, Louis Leakey wrote:

"Current findings on human evolution have brought us to the position where much of what we believed to have theoretically happened proves to be incorrect. Much that is in the textbooks, much that is still being taught in universities about human evolution is no longer true, but it continues to be taught because the implications of recent discoveries are insufficiently understood.

It was principally Weidenreich, Le Gros Clark, and a few of the people of that generation, just previous to mine, who put forward and strongly defended the idea that man had gone through a very simple series of stages of evolution: the pongid stage, an Australopithecine stage, a Pithecanthropus stage, and then man as we know him today. Theoretically, this had always seemed highly unlikely to some of us, since it meant that man had done something which no other mammal had done: evolved in a single straight line instead of having one main branch, with many experimental side branches which failed to make the grade. Yet the old theory persists. Linked with it is the concept, still very, very widely taught and very widely believed, that man in the relatively near past was at a pongid or ape stage of evolution. In such a very short time, three or four million years, as the books and many of my colleagues put it, we are supposed to have lost our huge canine teeth, lost our simian shelves, lost our long, brachiating arms, ceased to dwell in the trees, and many other similar but, I fear, erroneous concepts. These were theories which in the light of current facts no longer stand up."

Mary Leakey’s 1979 discoveries of footprints in Tanzania added to the evidence that humans walked the earth over 3 million years ago. At Laetoli, about 25 miles south of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Leakey discovered footprints of a man, woman and child created about 3.6 million years ago and preserved under falling ash from the nearby Sadiman volcano. The raised arch and rounded heel of the footprints showed that whoever left these footprints walked as humans walk today.

When Jeremy DeSilva compared the ankle joint, the tibia and the talus fossils of human ancestors ("hominins") between 4.12 million to 1.53 million years old, he discovered that all of the ankle joints resembled those of modern humans rather than those of apes. Chimpanzees flex their ankles 45 degrees from normal resting position. This makes it possible for apes to climb trees with great ease. While walking, humans flex their ankles a maximum of 20 degrees. The human ankle bones are quite distinct from those of apes. (Read about DeSilva’s research here.)

A recent discovery of a complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensis at Hadar that shows the deep, flat base and tarsal facets that "imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans." (Carol Ward, William H. Kimbel, Donald C. Johanson, Feb. 2011) Read the report here.

Related reading: Louis Leakey: Scientist of the Day; 1.5 Million-Year Human Footprints in Kenya; Neanderthal Humans; Many Groups of Archaic Humans; Time to Jettison Young Earth Creationism; Was Lucy Human?; Ego's role in presentation of human origins

YEC and the Evidence of Red Ocher Burials

 

If you hold to Young Earth Creationism, you must deny the weighty evidence that suggests that God was working among early human populations.

Anthropologists agree that red ocher used in burial is symbolic of blood. They do not agree as to the nature of the blood. Does red ocher burial testify to a belief that the buried individual is returned to the womb of Mother Earth? Is it symbolic of placental blood? Or is it symbolic of a sacrifice of an animal that was then eaten? Did the red ocher symbolize sacrificial blood covering? 

While anthropologists do not agree on the nature of the blood being symbolized, they do agree that the practice of red ocher burial suggests the hope for life after death among Mesolithic and Neolithic populations. 

See this: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Red Ocher Burial Signifies Religious Belief

Inerrancy or Contextual Incongruities?

The diagram shows Nimrod's Sumerian wife. She named their firstborn son after her father, Asshur. This is an example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the early Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Understanding the biblical texts requires paying attention to the anthropologically significant data. The empirical approach of Biblical Anthropology rejects the notion that there are "errors" in Genesis. Instead, it recognizes contextual incongruities. Consider a Native American chief with a fleet of birch wood canoes controlling trade between villages on the Mississippi in 1720. Fast forward a mere 200 years to 1920 when a river magnate controls commerce on the same river with his fleet of riveted steel ships. Same river, very different cultural contexts.

The contexts of the biblical persons in Genesis 4-12 were as distantly in the past to First Century Jews as they are to most readers today. Adam and Eve lived around 5000-4800 BC in a vast well-watered region called Eden. One of their descendants Nimrod left Kush (East Africa) and established his territory on the Euphrates River around 3500 BC (Gen. 10). Abraham was one of Nimrod’s descendants. Abraham the Hebrew controlled the water systems at Hebron and Beersheba and the wells that he dug in Gerar around 2000 BC. To understand biblical history, we must grapple with these contextual incongruities and the best disciplines to apply in this effort are cultural anthropology, archaeology, DNA studies, and linguistics.

Critical reading avoids imposing a presumed order or interpretation on the text. To flesh out the narrative we must notice the incongruities and discrepancies, trace the layers, and listen for the subordinated voices. Those often are the voices of women.

The term "layers" is helpful if we imagine the growth rings of a tree. The oldest rings are near the center of the tree. The layers are visible when we cut through the tree. That is what Biblical Anthropology does with the canonical Scriptures. It seeks to identify the oldest layers and to use that data to gain a clearer picture of the social structure of the early Hebrew. Antecedents matter!

Biblical anthropology asks about antecedents. It explores what comes before what is described in the text. What events preceded the events recounted? It seeks to understand the cultural context of the earliest persons named in Genesis: Adam, Eve, Cain, Seth, Noah, etc. It is concerned with ancestors and received traditions. From what earlier context did certain practices develop? What traces of ancient memory can be uncovered?

Over the past 7 years the international forum The Bible and Anthropology has helped to advance the science of Biblical Anthropology. If this research interests you, consider joining that forum.

Related reading: The Dispersion of the Early Hebrew; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Hebrew were a Caste; Just Genesis: Learn About the Early Hebrew

Annie Maunder: Pioneer Astronomer

 

Annie Scott Dill Maunder FRAS was an Irish-British astronomer, who recorded the first evidence of the movement of sunspot emergence from the poles toward the equator over the Sun's 11-year cycle. She captured the longest coronial streamer (a ray like structure coming out from the sun) on record.

Annie was regarded as an expert in eclipse photography and was asked to take charge of photography of the Canadian Government's eclipse expedition to Labrador.

Annie was the daughter of the Rev William Andrew Russell, minister of 2nd Strabane Presbyterian Church, Co Tyrone, Ireland. She attended the Ladies’ Collegiate School, Belfast, and Girton College Cambridge, where she attained honors in the mathematical tripos (degree) examinations in 1889 and was Girton’s top mathematician of her year.

She began working at the Astronomer Royal in 1891. She was assigned to work in the solar department under its chief (Edward) Walter Maunder, photographing the sun daily through a telescope, weather permitting; then developing the photographs and examining the images with a measuring micrometer.

Sunspots were of particular interest to the department. Russell witnessed a giant spot in July 1892, and the resulting magnetic storm - a disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field caused by material emanating from the sun in a manner not fully understood at the time - was recorded on the observatory’s instruments.

Annie joined the British Astronomical Association (BAA), and in 1894 was made editor of its journal, a role she carried out for 35 years.

Related reading: Annie Maunder - Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland; STEM Education: A Turbulent Sun