RE: Yukon fossils represent a pivotal moment in evolution
June 17, 2011 at 6:39 pm
(This post was last modified: June 17, 2011 at 6:41 pm by Anomalocaris.)
One should also clarify which specie is meant when saying "Out of Africa". I think a predominant OOA origin for modern HSS currently living in the rest of the world is well atested.
This reminds me of a argument I had with two Chinese biophysicists who were not actually practicing paleontologists, but who were otherwise well versed with evolution, molecular biology, gene sequencing, etc. They insisted that local population of homo erectus in China already exhibited mongoloid features half a million years ago, and therefore modern Chinese must have evolved in place from local homo erectus, and can't possibly be descendants of Africans. They pointed to a certain Chinese paleonotologist who had published to this effect as the defining authority on this subject whose word it is almost criminal to contradict. When I pointed out that many more Chinese paleontologists subscribe to the Out of African hypothesis of modern HSS, even Chinese, they were indignant. When I pointed out that a couple of Chinese paleontologists argued from fossil evidence that no morphologically recognizable mongoloid population existed before the end of last ice age, and that prior to that even the population that lived in confines of modern China exhibited generic morphological characteristics that were definitely homo sapien but hard to fit into any modern group, they became even more indignant. Well, meager evidence that has been discovered so far might suggest that, but she is absolutely certain that when more evidence has been found, the weight of evidence will point the other way. How she could have known this when the said evidence is not yet found, I asked. Look at us, we are not descendants of Africans, she said.
This reminds me of a argument I had with two Chinese biophysicists who were not actually practicing paleontologists, but who were otherwise well versed with evolution, molecular biology, gene sequencing, etc. They insisted that local population of homo erectus in China already exhibited mongoloid features half a million years ago, and therefore modern Chinese must have evolved in place from local homo erectus, and can't possibly be descendants of Africans. They pointed to a certain Chinese paleonotologist who had published to this effect as the defining authority on this subject whose word it is almost criminal to contradict. When I pointed out that many more Chinese paleontologists subscribe to the Out of African hypothesis of modern HSS, even Chinese, they were indignant. When I pointed out that a couple of Chinese paleontologists argued from fossil evidence that no morphologically recognizable mongoloid population existed before the end of last ice age, and that prior to that even the population that lived in confines of modern China exhibited generic morphological characteristics that were definitely homo sapien but hard to fit into any modern group, they became even more indignant. Well, meager evidence that has been discovered so far might suggest that, but she is absolutely certain that when more evidence has been found, the weight of evidence will point the other way. How she could have known this when the said evidence is not yet found, I asked. Look at us, we are not descendants of Africans, she said.
