In the image of God?

A critical look at the TV series “Ape-Man - Adventures in Human Evolution”

Dr. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum made a striking comment when he appeared in the TV series, Ape-Man: adventures in human evolution. (BBC2, 2000)

Referring to an occasion when some key human fossils were being assembled for a scientific conference, he said: “There had to be tremendous security. The fossils had to be escorted in convoy from the airport. There also had to be special exhibition cases which were bullet-proof and even bomb-proof, against attacks by terrorists or creationists.”

For a moment, I had visions of a crack team in balaclavas from the Biblical Creation Society, scaling walls to hijack the collection! The implication of Dr. Stringer's comment is that creationists are frightened of what the fossil record may reveal about human origins. I want to show that, far from being fearful of the fossil evidence, creationists would like people to know the truth about it. Sadly, the truth is not what the Ape-Man series presented to the public.

Ape-Man gave us a guided tour of the fossils used to support the Darwinian concept of human evolution. We were invited to gaze through the mists of time at half-ape, half-human creatures. Not a hint was given that the fossil evidence might be understood in a non-Darwinian way. But is the evidence that clear-cut? Does the fossil record really provide support for man's descent from an ape-like ancestor?

The southern apes

In 1924 Raymond Dart of Witwatersrand University obtained a small fossil skull from a limestone quarry near Johannesburg. The Taung child, as it became known, was the first in a series of ape-like fossils that today are collectively referred to as australopithecines ('southern apes'). These creatures are said to have lived from about four and a half to two million years ago. The best known australopithecine is Lucy, a 40% complete skeleton unearthed from Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974. Lucy is very ape-like and has a small brain (400 cc). However, Darwinists claim that Lucy and her kind were bipedal (able to walk on two legs), and this characteristic is said to mark them out as our ancestors.

However, if the australopithecines habitually walked upright at all, it was not in the human manner. Their body proportions were chimpanzee-like, with long arms, short legs, and long, curved hands and feet. In 1983 anatomists Jack Stern and Randall Susman published a detailed study of the bones from Hadar. Although these creatures appeared to have some ability to walk upright, their study revealed that the australopithecines were best interpreted as adept tree-climbers. Furthermore, a study published in Nature (2000) concludes that some australopithecines, including Lucy, had wrists designed for knuckle-walking.

Dexterous man

The australopithecines are thought to have given rise to Homo habilis ('dexterous man'). However, the fossil remains of this creature are fragmentary and controversial. Many authorities now consider Homo habilis to be an invalid category, made up of at least two different species. One of these species was small (about three feet tall) and probably a slender form of australopithecine - in other words, an extinct ape. However, the other species was considerably larger and, based on the available material, seems to have been human. The most famous skull assigned to Homo habilis is KNM-ER 1470 (KNM = Kenya National Museum, ER = East Rudolf). This specimen is a human-shaped skull with a brain size within the range of Homo (800 cc). There is also evidence from inside the skull of a Broca's area, the part of the brain that controls speech. Apart from its supposed age (1.9 million years), there is no obvious reason why this skull could not be considered fully human. Homo habilis is a 'rubbish bin' category made up of a mixture of human and non-human material.

Upright man

Homo erectus ('upright man') is the name given to a group of fossils that have large brains (about 900-1150 cc), and are sometimes associated with tools and fire. They were first recorded from Java in Indonesia, although the earliest Homo erectus remains are now thought to be from East Africa.

In 1984, Alan Walker and Richard Leakey discovered the almost complete skeleton of a 12 year-old Homo erectus in Kenya. The boy would have stood five feet four inches tall and had a brain size of about 850 cc. From the neck down Homo erectus is essentially modern, although certain features of the skull are said to be 'primitive'. These include a sloping forehead, prominent brow ridges, and a poorly developed chin. These features do not, however, invalidate Homo erectus as a member of the human family. Some anthropologists think there is a tendency to exaggerate the significance of these differences, and that the range of variation of Homo erectus features falls within that of modern man.

The cultural remains associated with Homo erectus indicate true humanity. There is evidence of tool manufacture, the hunting and preparation of game, the controlled use of fire, the building of huts as dwellings, and navigation of the sea in constructed vessels. These are signs that Homo erectus is a descendant of Adam, not an ape-man ancestor.

Neanderthal man

In the public mind, Neanderthal man has become synonymous with Darwinism. However, the story of Neanderthal man's discovery is not an entirely happy one. The first Neanderthal remains were found in a limestone cave in the Neander River valley, near Dusseldorf, in 1856. Over the next few decades similar remains were found in many other European cave sites. In the Darwinist ferment into which they were thrust, they were portrayed as stooping, shuffling, hairy ape-men. This turned out to be a misinterpretation, based largely on one skeleton that belonged to an elderly man with arthritis! In fact, the Neanderthals were as upright and un-ape-like as we are. They were a stocky and powerfully muscular people, with low domed skulls like Homo erectus. Their average brain size was actually slightly larger than that of modern humans. Richard Leakey once wrote that if Neanderthal man could be bathed, shaved, dressed in modern clothing, and placed in the New York subway, 'it is doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some of its other denizens'!

As with Homo erectus, Neanderthal man is associated with cultural remains that demonstrate his humanity. For example, Neanderthals buried their dead with ritual (preparation of the body, grave goods such as flowers and artefacts). They made dwellings, used tools and fire, wore clothes, and even performed primitive surgery. It has been claimed that DNA recovered from Neanderthal skeletons is sufficiently different from that of modern humans to indicate that they did not contribute to the modern gene pool. There are problems, however, with the statistics and methodology of these studies. There are several sites where Neanderthal remains have been found alongside those of modern man, and even finds of skeletons that seem to have a mixture of Neanderthal and modern human characteristics. The latest of these, the skeleton of a four year-old boy discovered near Lisbon, made headlines in April 1999. If these are Neanderthal/Homo sapiens hybrids they support the idea that the Neanderthals were fully human.

The Basic Type approach

Popular presentations on human origins, such as the Ape-Man series, are dominated by the idea that we share a common ancestor with the apes. Inevitably, the evidence is made to fit into this Darwinian framework. However, this is not the only way to understand the evidence. An alternative is the Basic Type approach. We can recognise the dog family, the cat family, the bear family, and so on. There is strong evidence that the species that make up these groups (for instance, dingos, jackals, wolves, coyotes within the 'dog' type) are related; they are variations on a theme, expressions of latent genetic information built into each type. However, evidence for links between the groups is lacking. This approach can be applied to the human family. The evidence we have considered in this article indicates that 1470 man, Homo erectus, the Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens should all be included in the human basic type. They are united by skeletal structure, brain size, and culture. We would consider all these to be descendants of Adam, and, indeed, Noah. On the other hand, the australopithecines and the smaller Homo habilis specimens appear to belong to a different basic type.

In 1994, support for these conclusions came from computerised X-ray (CAT) scans of several fossil skulls. These scans revealed the structure of the semi-circular canals in the inner ear. The semi-circular canals are an organ of balance, and their shape and size in different creatures reflects patterns of movement. Fred Spoor and colleagues were able to show that the australopithecines and certain Homo habilis fossils had ape-like semi-circular canals (reflecting a tree-dwelling lifestyle), while Homo erectus had human-like semi-circular canals (reflecting upright walking).