littor...@gmail.com wrote:
Q:
What is the definition of a transitional fossil? Are there any transitional fossils between apes and humans?
If so, what are some examples of these kinds of fossils?
Best answer I've ever heard, and it's not mine but I'm willing to pretend it is the
way some knob polishers pretend that Naledi buried their dead, is this:
ALL fossils are transitional! Evolution never stopped and never will stop. ALL species in existence are either dead-ends or the parent species to a new species...
A:
Literally, there are no transitional *fossils* between apes & humans (*living* spp). Besides, some
apes (Pan: chimp+bonobo) are closer relatives of us (Homo) than they are of the other apes: gorillas,
orangs, gibbons & siamangs.
Very deceptive, in a way, because Chimps (and gorillas, likely) have evolved AWAY from
a common ancestor with us. They became LESS human like over time.
Traditional paleo-anthropologists believe australopiths are transitional between apes & ourselves.
Well the timing ain't bad. Other than that, it's where they want it to be. That's it.
This is wrong, of course: traditional PAs anthropo- & afro-centrically only see “human ancestors” in
Plio-Pleistocene Africa
And *Everything* is a human ancestor!
They haven't altered any of their conclusions about Naledi, for example. They dubbed it
"Homo" because it was a "Human Ancestor" and re wrote the book on evolution.
But if Naledi is Homo doesn't that require Sediba to be Homo?
but miraculously never “ape ancestors” (less grants?) although Pan & Gorilla have always lived in
Africa, whereas the earliest undoubted Homo (IOW, not "Homo"?Australopithecus habilis?) come
from SE.Asia!
I'm pretty certain that the lines aren't quite as distinct as you see them, and they are
CERTAINLY not as distinct and savanna idiots need to pretend. I see them as an offshoot,
descendants of some group that pushed inland from the Waterside population. We would
expect the to be at least as different from that Waterside population as Neanderthals,
Denisovans & so called Hss were from each other. After all, they were in turn each
descended from the Waterside population...
Interbreeding with previous "Strays" would have helped make everyone different. As
would "Natural Selection" -- adapting to the local environment. And once the Glacial/Interglacial thing was rolling along it all would have gone into overdrive...
Glacial = Connection
Interglacial = Isolation
A zillion years ago I called this a "Pump."
Glaciers grow, sea level plummets, vast stretches of new beaches open up (the continental shelves), allowing populations/DNA/technology to flow.
Interglacials occur, sea levels rise and vast stretches of beaches are swallowed
up by the waves... isolation.
"Isolation is the engine of evolution."
Didn't you say that?
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