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Missing Links

Missing Links Chapter 6 9/27/07 For Today How far we’ve come! This Chapter Science and the masses Scientists seek proof The break-through! The Triumph of Evolution? Darwin Descent of Man ( 1871) The common sentiment…

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Missing Links

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  1. Missing Links Chapter 6 9/27/07

  2. For Today • How far we’ve come! • This Chapter • Science and the masses • Scientists seek proof • The break-through!

  3. The Triumph of Evolution? • Darwin • Descent of Man (1871) • The common sentiment… “…the higher mental and spiritual nature of man is not the mere animal advanced through survival of the fittest.” Alfred Russell Wallace

  4. Not Everyone Agrees • Evolutionary Naturalists • Charles Lyell • Alfred Russell Wallace • Duke of Argyll • Other Public notaries • Leo Tolstoy • Henry Ward Beecher • William Gladstone • William Jennings Bryan

  5. …. But some do agree • Huxley • Haeckel • Karl Marx • Socialist • Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Feminist • Herbert Spencer • Social Philosopher

  6. The new ‘Religion’ • Andrew Carnegie • industrialist • George Holyoake • Secularist

  7. Seeking Proof • Current evidence • Geographic distribution • Anatomical similarities • Natural groupings • New evidence • Paleontology!!

  8. Cuvier vs. Lyell • Cuvier’s proof • Species remain constant within geologic time • Species abruptly replaced-- catastrophist • Humans only appear in recent period • Lyell’s uniformitarianism • Fossils laid down intermittently – discontinuities prove nothing! • ‘abrupt’ appearance of new species suggest gradual successio

  9. Late 19th Century • Fossils linking reptiles to birds • Sequence of fossils leading to modern horses • Huxley and O.C. Marsh • Branching pattern of evolution • Still mounting evidence -- intermediate forms

  10. Birds from the Age of Dinosaurs • Archaeopteryx • Bavaria 1861 and 1877, primitive reptile-bird • Ichthyornis dispar • Hesperornis regalis • Kansas 1872, primitive reptile-bird • Compsognathus lognipas • Bavaria, small bird-like dinosaur

  11. Horses • In Europe • Albert Gaudry (1850s) -- 3-toed horses from Pikerni, Greece • Huxley and Kovalevsky (1870s) -- more 3-toed horses! • In the U.S. • O.C. Marsh (1860s) -- 4 and 5-toed horses

  12. Who cares? • Public still not convinced • Gaps in fossil record • Fossils from pre-Cambrian strata? • Fossils connecting humans to apes?

  13. On the ‘order’ of humans • Cuvier and Owen put humans in their own taxonomic order (Homo sapiens) • Huxley (Man’s Place in Nature, 1863) put all primates in the same order • Cousins? • Engis skull (Belgium 1833) • “An average human skull that might have belonged to a philosopher.” Huxley • Neanderthal bones (Germany 1856) • Cro-Magnon Man (France)

  14. Awakening Public Awareness • Lyell’s Antiquity of Man(1863) • Rousing public interest • Not really Darwinian • Incremental development of body • Great leaps forward in intelligence • Darwin’s betrayal • Opening the door…

  15. Science marches on… • Human cultural evolution • Archeology • Anthropology • Move over historians, moral philosophers, and theologians

  16. Dubois • Eugene Dubois (1858, Netherlands) • Conservative Catholic upbringing • M.D. 1884 • Anatomy instructor at University of Amsterdam 1886 • Inspired by Darwin, Lyell, and Haeckel • Joined Dutch Army as medical officer and moved to East Indies 1887

  17. Dubois’s Mission • Haeckel History of Creation (1873) “… it follows from this theory that the human race, in the first phase, must be traced back to ape-like animals.”

  18. Dubois’s Discovery • Pithecanthropus erectus (1891) (Homo erectus) • Walked upright • Brain intermediate between humans and apes • “Upright Apeman” or “Java Man” • International sensation • Place in evolutionary tree debated

  19. Brain size vs. Uprightness • Piltdown Man (1912) • England • Brain size led way to human evolution • A hoax (1953) • Peking Man (1929) • Same as P. erectus?? Found in China • Many more specimens found • Actually, more closely related to man than apes

  20. South Africa, 1924… • Raymond Dart • Australian anatomist and anthropologist • Trained at University College, London • Head of Anatomy Dept., Univ. Witwatersand, South Africa • Prizes for bones!! • Josephine Salomons and the limestone quarry • Australopithecus africanus – Taung Child

  21. The Cradle of Mankind • Nature February 7, 1925 ”…their eyes saw, their ears heard, and their hands handled objects with greater meaning and to fuller purpose than the corresponding organs in recent apes.” Raymond Dart

  22. The Raging Debate • Leading anthropologists rebuke Dart’s claim • Robert Broom – Dart’s bulldog? • 1936 new specimens of A. africanus at Sterkfontein, South Africa • Affirmation of walking erect • Australopithecus robustus • Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark (1947) • Confirmed Taung Child to Academia • Disproved Piltdown Man

  23. The Discoveries continue • Louis and Mary Leaky (1959) • Kenyan paleontologists • Great Rift Valley • Australopithecus boisei • Homo habilis (Handy man, 1961) – by Jonathan Leaky • H. erectus (1970s) – by Richard Leaky • Donald Johnson team (1970s) • USA • A. afarensis • “Lucy” • Many more Australopithecus from Great Rift Valley • Earlier hominid fossils (1990s) • Ardipithecus • Orrorin • Sahelanthropus

  24. Sahelanthropus tchadensisOrrorin tugenensisArdipithecus ramidusAustralopithecus anamensisAustralopithecus afarensisKenyanthropus platyopsAustralopithecus africanusAustralopithecus garhiAustralopithecus aethiopicusAustralopithecus robustusAustralopithecus boisei Homo habilisHomo georgicusHomo erectusHomo ergasterHomo antecessorHomo heidelbergensisHomo neanderthalensisHomo floresiensis Homo sapiens sapiens Hominid Species

  25. The Discoveries still continue… • Homo floresiensis • Flores 2003 • 1 Meter tall (hobbit?) • Hunted dwarf elephants

  26. Hominid Evolutionary Timeline evolution.berkeley.edu/.../IIE2cHumanevop2.shtml

  27. References • Websites • http://www.talkorigins.org • http://www.strangescience.net • http://evolution.berkeley.edu/ • http://www.becominghuman.org/ • http://www.sciencedaily.com/ • Some interesting papers • Tocheri, Matthew W., et al. The Primitive Wrist of Homo floresiensis and Its Implications for Hominid Evolution Science 2007, 317:5845, 1743–1745. • Spoor, F., et al. Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya Nature 2007,448, 688-691.

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