The following table summarizes the diversity of creationist opinions about some of the more prominent items in the human fossil record.
下表は、人類の化石記録の中でも有名なものについての、創造論者の意見の多様性をまとめたものである。
As this table shows, although creationists are adamant that none of these are transitional and all are either apes or humans, they are not able to agree on which are which. In fact, there are a number of creationists who have changed their opinion on some fossils. They do not even appear to be converging towards a consistent opinion. ...
It could be pointed out that evolutionists also disagree on how fossils should be classified, which species they belong to, etc. True enough. But according to evolutionary thinking, these fossils come from a number of closely related species intermediate between apes and humans. If this is so, we would expect to find that some of them are hard to classify, and we do.
Creationists, on the other hand, assert that apes and humans are separated by a wide gap. If this is true, deciding on which side of that gap individual fossils lie should be trivially easy. Clearly, that is not the case.
Baker S.: Bone of contention: is evolution true?, Evangelical Press, 1976
Bowden M.: Ape-men: fact or fallacy? Bromley,Kent:Sovereign, 1981. Ed. 2
Cuozzo J.W.: Buried alive: the startling truth about Neanderthal man. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 1998, p.101
Gish D.T.: Evolution: the fossils say no, San Diego:Creation-Life Publishers, 1979. Ed. 3 (this is the third edition of a book first published in 1972 and was somewhat out of date by 1979)
Gish D.T.: Evolution: the challenge of the fossil record, El Cajon, CA:Creation-Life Publishers, 1985.
Lubenow M.L.: Bones of contention: a creationist assessment of human fossils, Grand Rapids,MI:Baker Books, 1992.
Lubenow M.L.: Bones of contention (2nd edition): a creationist assessment of human fossils, Grand Rapids,MI:Baker Books, 2004.
Mehlert A.W. : Australopithecus and Homo habilis - pre-human ancestors ? Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 10.2, 219-40, 1996.
Menton D.N.: The scientific evidence for the origin of man, 1988. (a creationist essay)
Taylor P.S.: The illustrated origins answer book, Mesa,Arizona:Eden Productions, 1992. Ed. 4
Taylor P.S.:Who's who and what's what in the world of "missing" links?, 1996
Taylor P.S. and Van Bebber M.: Who's who and what's what in the world of "missing" links?, 1995 (an earlier version of Taylor 1996)
Dmanisiの化石は中間化石ではないと言うLuskinとAnswers in Genesis
Jim Foleyが、「グルジア共和国Dmanisiで発見された、ホモハビリスとホモエレクトスの中間的な特徴を持つ化石:について、"若い地球の創造論"ミニストリAnswers in Genesisが現代の人間の変異の範囲内と主張し、インテリジェントデザインの本山たるDiscovery InstituteのCasey Luskinが類人猿そのものだと主張していたことを発見した:
Recently, I blogged about the newly discovered skeletal bones of the Dmanisi hominids (Lordkipanidze et al. 2007, Gibbons 2007, Lieberman 2007), and the Discovery Institute’s response to them. (In a nutshell, Casey Luskin of the DI attempted to argue that the Dmanisi hominids were apes, an argument that is untenable for any number of reasons).
最近、私は新たに発見されたDmaisiホミニドの化石骨格[Lordkipanidze et al 2007, Gibbons 2007, Lieberman 2007]についてブログ記事を書き、Discovery Instituteの反応を取り上げた。Discovery InstituteのCasey Luskinは、Dmanisiホミニドが類人猿であると論じようとした。その論は多くの理由により支持できない。
I know of only one other creationist discussion of the Dmanisi skeletons, in an article by Answers in Genesis (AIG) (scroll down to the 2nd item). It is fascinating to observe that AIG has decided that the Dmanisi hominids are humans, in contrast to Luskin’s opinion that they were probably apes. If either side is right, the other must be hopelessly incompetent (not excluding, of course, the possibility that both are incompetent).
私はDmanisi骨格化石について論じた他の創造論者をひとりしか知らない。それはAnswers in Genesisの記事である。おそらく類人猿であろうというLuskinの意見とは反対に、Answers in GenesisはDmanisiホミニドを人間だと判断したことは、興味をそそられる。
...
Gibbons, A. (2007): A new body of evidence fleshes out Homo erectus. Science, 317:1664.
Lieberman D.E. (2007): Homing in on early Homo. Nature 449:291-292.
Lordkipanidze, D., Jashashvili, T., Vekua, A., Ponce de Leon, M. S., Zollikofer, C. P., Rightmire, G. P. et al. (2007): Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Nature, 449:305-310.
Lubenow M.L.: Bones of contention (2nd edition): a creationist assessment of human fossils, Grand Rapids,MI:Baker Books, 2004.
Yet these leg and foot bones in many respects resemble modern apes as much as they resemble modern humans. I cannot be faulted for being skeptical of the claim that these species were necessarily evolving towards modern humans.
According to the Figure 3 in the Nature report, the femoral length is like that of a human or a gorilla (Fig. 3b). … Figure 3 also reports the length of an arm bone, as the humeral length resembles that of a human or perhaps a chimp (Fig. 3b).
In short, these are interesting new finds: Above the waist, they appear to be extremely ape-like. Below the waist, they seem to resemble modern apes as well as resembling modern humans. Yet this species post-dates the human-ape split and is being touted as a species that was evolving into a modern human, not a modern ape. What's going on here?
一方、Answers in Genesisによれば、「Dmanisiの化石は小さなホモエレクトスにすぎず、ホモエレクトスは現代の人間の変異の範囲内」である:
2. National Geographic News: "Odd Fossil Skeletons Show Both Apelike and Human Traits"
A team reporting this week in the journal Nature announces the discovery of the remains of four individuals found at the site of a medieval castle at Dmanisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Dated at 1.77 million years old (by a yet unnamed method) and ascribed to Homo erectus, scientists claim that the fossils “fill crucial gaps in the story of our evolution.”
Thus, the fossils, which the study authors see as filling a crucial gap in evolutionary understanding (and bridging the gap between ape-like ancestor and human), seem to show nearly every sign of being simply diminutive members of H. erectus, who walked as we do and who had, as Lordkipanidze stated, “modern human features.” As we note in Is there really evidence that man descended from the apes?, H. erectus was
smaller than the average human today, with an appropriately smaller head (and brain size). However, the brain size is within the range of people today and studies of the middle ear have shown that Homo erectus was just like us. Remains have been found in the same strata and in close proximity to ordinary Homo sapiens, suggesting that they lived together.
Indeed, H. erectus reminds us of H. floresiensis, the “hobbits” discovered in Indonesia ; plus a forthcoming AiG article on this week’s hobbit update regarding its wrist who were also fully human despite their small stature (despite recent yarn-spinning about the wrist bones). Finds like these, along with the Bible’s talk of giants, remind us that human variation has likely decreased in many ways over time -- although the range of human body sizes today is still considerable.