Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
Thank you for these. I really enjoyed the video, Carl Sagan was a wonderful gift unto the world. Though I would disagree with his assertion that human evolution (as is understood in biology) is a fact and not a theory. I'm just puzzled by the fact that there aren't a tremendous amount of fossils from "transitionary" humans. Wouldn't there be many examples of such fossils? Not just for humans but for all creatures?
briandmyers · 4538 days ago · link ·
There are no unexpected gaps in the fossil record. What gap are you specifically positing to exist?
–
–
briandmyers · 4538 days ago · link ·
You'll need to be more specific.
That era in the fossil record IS indeed sparse, but not unexpectedly so. Primate populations are typically very small (until Homo sapiens came along). For example, we do not know nearly as much as we'd like about the evolutionary divergence of ANY of the great apes, for exactly the same reasons.
–
thenewgreen · 4538 days ago · link ·
Good point briandmyers. @lambofgod, I think people often think two things:
1. Homo sapiens have always been in numbers of millions and congregated together in large numbers. -Not true 2. Fossil discovery, extraction and analysis is easy. -Also not true. There is another thread going on right now about whether or not the discovery of extraterrestrial life (aliens) would impact religious belief? I actually think that finding more fully intact fossils from this era would do more to shake up belief. I wish them well in Ethiopia.