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Apes, Apeman and Man

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Title: Apes, Apeman and Man


1
Apes, Apeman and Man
  • Lee Spencer, Ph.D.
  • Earth History Research Center
  • Southwestern Adventist University
  • Keene, TX 76059

2
Definitions
  • Science is the process of formulating testable
    (i.e. reject able) hypotheses.
  • Faith is the acceptance of statements,
    interpretations and/or hypotheses in spite of the
    lack of data or data that appears to contradict
    the statements, interpretations and/or
    hypotheses.
  • Cosmology is the belief system explaining the
    cause for the underlying harmony in the universe.
    Examples of cosmologies include naturalism where
    natural law is self-existent and is the sole
    cause for the underlying harmony of the universe
    and variations of supernaturalism where there is
    a being above natural law.

3
Definitions (Continued)
  • Creation, Evolution, Diluvialism are all
    cosmologies because they cannot be falsified
  • Evolutionary senarios such as phylogenetic
    hypotheses are falsifiable and therefore
    scientific.
  • Evolution cannot be falsified because even if all
    phylogenetic hypotheses are falsified, ad hoc
    statements will be invoked to prevent the
    cosmology from being falsified (such as the
    incompleteness of the fossil record)

4
Definitions (Continued)
  • Supernaturalistic cosmologies include theistic
    evolution, progressive creation, and
    neodiluvialism (usually called young-earth
    creation)
  • Theistic evolution is indistinguishable from
    naturalistic evolution in practice, it just
    assumes that God directed evolution

5
Definitions (Continued)
  • Progressive creation proposes that God had many
    creative episodes and that the event that
    produced man is just the latest
  • Neodiluvialism proposes that there was a single
    event for the creation of life a few thousand
    years ago and the geological column was produced
    by Noahs Flood

6
The Origin of Man
  • The origin of man is one of the most intensely
    debated part of the whole controversy
  • Beliefs on mans origin differ tremendously
    throughout the world

7
Belief Systems on Origin of Man
  • For millennia, the predominately held belief was
    that man was designed and created by a
    supernatural being God
  • Starting about 150 years ago, there was a shift
    to naturalism with the process called evolution
    by natural selection
  • Next, compromise views like theistic evolution
    and progressive creation developed

8
Christian Beliefs on Human Origin
  • The Pope recently announced that theistic
    evolution is the official church position for
    Roman Catholics
  • The Baptist and Adventist position is a
    young-earth creation/ neodiluvial model
  • Other denominations vary greatly in the official
    stance on the origin of man

9
Data, Interpretation and Hypothesis Testing
  • First we will summarize the data relating to the
    origin of man
  • Then we will examine the evolution/theistic
    evolution, progressive creation, and young- earth
    creation hypotheses and test them to the data

10
Hominoids, the Apes and Man
  • Linnean classification places the apes and man
    together in the superfamily Hominoidea
  • There are 3 families
  • Hylobatidae (gibbons)
  • Pongidae (Chimps, Gorilla, and Orangutan)
  • Hominidae (Man)
  • All are tailless large primates
  • The Families are separated by different modes of
    locomotion

11
Family Hylobatidae the Gibbons
  • The gibbon are all brachiators which mean the
    move through the forest canopy by swinging arm
    movements with the body suspended beneath the
    arms
  • Also called the lesser apes

12
Family Pongidae the Great Apes
  • The Pongidea include the chimpanzees, gorillas
    and orangutans
  • All are knuckle-walkers which means that when on
    the ground, they perambulate quadrapedally
  • The orang makes a fist and the first phalanx
    makes ground contact
  • The chimps and gorilla make ground contact with
    the second phalanx

13
Family Hominidae Man
  • Humans are the only living primates that are
    habitually bipedal

14
The Pongid Skull
  • In the figure to the left is pictured an adult
    male gorilla skull. It can be characterized as
    having a prominent saggital crest (ridge along
    the top of the skull), a large bony orbit (eye
    socket), and a prominent brow ridge. It also has
    a large flat facial area below the orbits and a
    protruding muzzle (prognathism) with large canine
    teeth.

15
The Modern Human Skull
  • Compared to the gorilla skull, the human skull
    lacks a saggital crest, has gracile orbits
    (thinner and smaller), and a short face, with no
    prognathism.

16
Fossil Hominids
  • In the fossil record there are three major groups
    of bipedal primates intermediate in morphology
    between the pongids and modern man

17
  • There is a gradational increase in cranial volume

18
1. Chimpanzee 2. Australopithecus africanus 3.
Homo habilis 4. Kenyanthropus rudolfensis 5-6.
Pithecanthropus erectus 7-8. P. saldensis 9.
Homo heidelburgensis 10-11. H. neanderthalensis
12. H. sapiens
  • When viewed from the top, all of the skulls
    except that of anatomically modern man show a
    marked constriction just behind the orbital
    region. This constriction imparts a decide
    pear-shape to the braincase. Because the skull of
    anatomically modern man is inflated in the
    frontal area and has gracile orbits, the overall
    shape of the skull is more ovoid than pear-shaped

19
1. Pan sp. (chimpanzee), 2. Australopithecus
africanus, 3. Pithecanthropus erectus, 4. Homo
heidelbergensis, 5. Homo neanderthalensis 6.
Anatomically Modern Man
  • We also see a gradation of cranial morphologies
    from an essentially pongid morphology to the
    modern human morphology. Large, bony eye sockets,
    a large nasal opening, and stout facial bones
    dominate the face of the pongid. The pongid
    facial pattern is seen in all fossil hominids
    except anatomically modern man.

20
Chimpanzee Neanderthal Modern Man
  • A similar pattern is seen in lateral view. The
    pongid skull is characterized by a sulcus behind
    the brow ridges, prognathism and a protruding
    occipital region. Anatomically modern man lacks
    prognathism and brow ridges with the accompanying
    sulcus, and has a much less pronounced occipital
    bulge. The fossil hominids show the pongid
    pattern, including the Neanderthal whose
    endocranial volume averages more than
    anatomically modern man.

21
  • Another character that is unique to anatomically
    modern man is the parietal bulge. When viewed
    from behind, the widest point of the skull of
    anatomically modern man is high, in the parietal
    region. The widest point of the pongid skull is
    close to the base of the skull, near the auditory
    region. All of the fossil hominids, including
    Neanderthal, have the widest point low near the
    auditory.

22
1. Chimpanzee 2. Australopithecus africanus 3.
Pithecanthropus erectus 4. Homo sapiens
  • In the pongids, the foramen magnum is located
    near the back if the skull so the head can be
    inclined and pointed forward during quadrapedal
    locomotion (knuckle-walking). In anatomically
    modern man, the foramen magnum is under the skull
    since the skull weight is born by the shoulders
    while walking upright. The fossil hominids show
    intermediate placement of the foramen magnum
    between that seen in pongids and anatomically
    modern man.

23
1. Australopithecus africanus 2. Homo habilis
3. Pithecanthropus erectus 4. Homo
heidelbergensis 5. Homo neanderthalensis
  • The pongid palate is rectangular with the widest
    part at the canines then narrowing backward into
    the skull. The human palate forms a parabolic
    curve with the widest part interior into the
    skull.

Fossil hominids are intermediate in palate shape
between the pongid and human morphologies. In all
of the species except anatomically modern man,
the premolars and molars form a relatively
straight line. The axis of the line shifts from
nearly parallel with the midline of the palate in
the australopithecines to broadly divergent in
the Neanderthals.
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25
  • Humerofemoral index is a ration of the length of
    the humerous divided by the length of the femor

Arboreal apes have longer arms than legs while
modern humans have shorter arms than legs. The
humerofemoral index quantifies this difference.
If the limbs are of equal length, the index will
be 100. Values greater than 100 occur when the
arms are longer than the legs, values less than
100 occur when the arms are shorter than the
legs. The australopithecines plot intermediately
between the pongids and humans. The
pithecanthropines and Homo species all plot
together with the arms shorter than the legs.
26
  • The australopithecines also plot with the apes on
    the orientation of the scapula, an adaptation for
    arboriality. If a line is drawn through the axis
    of the ventral bar on the scapula and another
    through the glenoid cavity, the intersecting
    angle can be measured. The apes have a
    bar-glenoid angle less than 140 degrees while
    humans have an angle of approximately 145
    degrees. The australopithecines have an angle
    about 130 degrees. Like the humerofemoral index,
    the pithecanthropines and Homo plot together.

27
Another index of arboriality is the relative
length and degree of curvature of the phalanges
(fingers and toes). The phalanges of the pongids
are relatively long and curved those of modern
man are short and straight.
  • The australopithecines are short like modern man,
    but curved like the pongids. The degree of
    curvature can actually be calculated and
    quantitatively compared among the various
    hominoids (Susman et al. 1984). The numbers
    confirm what was intuitively obvious from the
    illustrationthe australopithecine phalanges have
    a pongid curvature. Members of the Homininae all
    have relatively straight phalanges.

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