Does “Full Humanity” Predate Homo Sapiens? (Part 5 - Hominids)
In Does “Full Humanity” Predate Homo Sapiens? (Part 4 - Pre-Adamism), I quoted part of an interchange between Stephen Jones and Glenn Morton, where SJ acknowledged Anamensis existence 4.2 mya. Here it is for your convenience:
GM: As I have mentioned, there are a few fossils which have Homo-like affinities from 4.2 MYR ago. You seem to forget that.
(see Brigitte Senut and Christine Tardieu, “Functional Aspects of Plio-Pleistocene Hominid Limb Bones: Implications for Taxonomy and phylogeny”,in Eric Delson, editor, Ancestors: The Hard Evidence, pp 193-201)
SJ: I don’t “forget that” at all. As Glenn himself says, they are “fossils which have Homo-like affinities from 4.2 MYR ago”. They are *the beginnings* of such “Homo-like affinities”, mainly in the upper arm bones. Indeed, the Fossil Hominid FAQ regards these as “Australopithecus amanuensis”. “This species was only named in August 1995. The material consists of 9 fossils, mostly found in 1994, from Kanapoi in Kenya, and 12 fossils, mostly teeth found in 1988, from Allia Bay in Kenya (Leakey et al.1995). Amanuensis existed between 4.2 and 3.9 million years ago, and has a mixture of primitive features in the skull, and advanced features in the body. The teeth and jaws are very similar to those of older fossil apes. A partial tibia (the larger of the two lower leg bones) is strong evidence of bipedality, and a lower humerus (the upper arm bone) is extremely human-like. Note that although the skull and skeletal bones are thought to be from the same species, this is not confirmed.” (Foley J., “Fossil Hominids FAQ”, April 16, 1996). What Glenn needs is “fossils which have” *advanced “Homo-like affinities from” ie. *5.5* “MYR ago”, and ideed millions of years before.
The GM “needs” fossils from 5.5 million year before is because he believes the Flood occurred 5.5 mya. By extension then, so must Adam. So, if wants to make the case that Amanuensis constitutes the first humans, and their fossils date to only 4.2 mya, then how to establish a date of 5.5 mya? He answers that question in his article “How Could Mankind be 5.5 MYR Old and Not Have Fossil Evidence for Him That Long Ago?” According to Morton:
Given these facts, it is not unreasonable to know that the time of earliest example of any species is simply not the time when the species arose. The species arose at some earlier time. The earliest find of a species is just that–the earliest find. Probabilistically, it has been shown that one can expect the time of origin of a species to be 1.3 times the age of the earliest specimen.
In other words, something found 4.2 mya had to already have existed for some amount of time… 1.3 times as long ago. In this case 4.2 * 1.3 = 5.5 mya. So there you have it.
The problem I have is that the only way this factor can be accurate is if the passage of time makes discovery of a given fossil less and less likely. In other words, 10 million years from now, when our 4.2 million year old evidence is 14.2 million years old, that won’t be an argument for pushing hominids back to 18.5 million years (14.2 * 1.3)… an addition 3 million years. To get 15.5 million years from 14.2 would require a factor of 1.1. Hmmm…. the number gets smaller, but not dramatically, even 10 million years into the future. This suggests that even if the factor does change, that change will get less dramatic over time, not more. It makes the 1.3 factor reasonable to apply, given the anecdotal probabilistic evidence presented in Morton’s article above.
I have no problem with saying humanity could have begun 5.5 million years ago. The fossil evidence certainly paints a picture humanoid beings more advanced than apes, capable of uniquely human activities, yet not as advanced as Homo Sapiens. It means that human evolution was not quite complete. It means that God evolved mankind through this period of time, until mankind reached a point when God was ready to talk with one. It means that mankind was mankind on Day 6, perhaps as long ago as 5.5 million years ago. Perhaps.
Now, I have read Morton’s reasons for believing the flood is so long ago, and it makes sense. However, the hurdle I cannot jump is the idea that God told humankind to subdue the earth 5.5 million years ago, and then completely decimated their ability to obey His command for 5.5 million years. And to confound that, it wasn’t the flood that did this tom them, but the addition of language in response to the Tower of Babel. Really? If God did that, then fine, but it just seems like too much of a stretch. Did He really want them subduing the earth or not? And why would adding languages decimate their ability to subdue for 5.5. million years? However, with a recent Adam, recent Noah, and recent Tower of Babel, mankind’s ability to subdue was not removed. Simply their progress was impeded a little bit, first through partial destruction, then by confusion of language. Slowing mankind down through hurdles makes much more sense to me then decimating their abilities in the first place.
Another point to consider is that by confounding people’s languages at Babel, it actually aided the subduing of the earth, by forcing them to spread out.
Another consideration is that Adam was told he had to til the ground, as punishment for disobeying God. Well, if that was 5.5 million years ago, then mankind lost that ability for 5.5 million years… kind of hard to punish people through tilling of the ground if they lose the ability to do it.
For these reasons, even if mankind did begin 5.5 million years ago (I can accept that), I see too many hurdles to accept Adam being at the start of it… and then followed quickly by Noah and the Tower of Babel? No. That said though, Morton’s arguments for altars, language, and other abilities in early man do convince me that mankind was fully human long before Adam was born. Neanderthals? Convinced. Language abilities that go back 2 million years? Reasonable… almost convinced. Bipedalism 4.2 million years ago? Seems likely to me. Treating 4.2 million year old evidence as 5.5, based on probabilistic evidence? Okay. So, I find it likely that mankind referred to in Day 6 goes back 5.5 million years. At the very least it’s reasonable.