Austin Robbins
Austin Robbins, DDS, recently retired from private practice in New Jersey. He was previously on the faculties of Georgetown University School of Dentistry, Temple University Dental School and University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Robbins is a member of the Board of Directors of the Associates for Biblical Research.
A front page story in the Philadelphia Inquirer of August 17, 1995, headlined, “Researchers Find Fossils of a New Human ancestor.” It reported the discovery of a complete upper jaw, a piece of a skull near the ear region, a leg bone and several teeth of other individuals. This discovery was published in the scientific journal Nature.
It was stated that this creature, termed Australopithecus anamensis, was found at Kanapoi in Kenya, Africa, southwest of Lake Turkana. A. anamensis is thought to have walked upright on two feet about 4 million years ago! Alan Walker, paleoanthropologist at Pennsylvania State University was quoted as saying, “This gets close to the hypothesized time of splitting of the ape and human lineages.” Walker also was quoted as stating that A. anamensis seems to be “directly ancestral to” Australopithecus afarensis, one of which is “Lucy,” a short ape-like creature found in 1974 and thought to have lived about 3.6 million years ago.
The standard evolutionary scenario is that the Australopithecines (the word means southern ape) gave rise to the genus homo which ultimately became modern man, Homo sapiens. This lineage then goes from A. afarensis to A. africanus to Homo habilis to H. erectus to archaic H. sapiens to H. sapiens sapiens. A time line for the supposed evolution of man would look much like this (mya=million years ago):
A. anamensis, 4 mya > A. afarensis, 3.6 mya > A. africanus, 2.5 mya> H. habilis, 1.8 mya> H. erectus, 1.5 mya, > archaic H. sapiens, 0.75 mya> H. sapiens, 0.3 mya.
There are, however, several problems with this scenario. It is almost axiomatic that for one form of life to evolve into another it must be older than the evolved form. Older forms are thought to die out while more evolved ones replace them. But one of the problems with the above scheme is the startling fact that there are fossils dated older than even A. anamensis which, under intense scrutiny, have been shown to be no different from the bones of modern humans living today!
The primary example of this is the
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fossilized left arm fragment known as KP 271. This fossil is the distal part of the humerus, the lower end (near the elbow) of a left upper arm bone. It was found in 1965 by Bryan Patterson of Harvard University at Kanapoi, southwest of Lake Rudolph (now named Lake Turkana) in northern Kenya. This is the same general area where the new fossil A. anamensis was discovered. (That’s why I immediately associated these two fossils.) KP 271 was found to be in an excellent state of preservation. The most recent dating of this fossil puts it at 4.5 mya (Patterson, et al. 1970). Thus it still is the oldest hominid fossil ever found and predates A. anamensis by about 500,000 or 600,000 years, according to the evolutionary time scale.
It has been carefully studied both in a trait-by-trait analysis (univariate) and by computerized multivariate analysis. From the beginning it was seen to be “strikingly close to the means of the human sample” (Patterson and Howells 1967: 65). This analysis was done by feeding seven different measurements into a computer of each of four samples: a modern human, a chimpanzee, an A. robustus fossil and KP271. Later, further computer analysis of many more measurements reinforced the same conclusion. Henry M. McHenry of the University of California, Davis, wrote,
The results show that the Kanapoi specimen, which is 4 to 4.5 million years old, is indistinguishable from modern Homo sapiens (1975: 428).
Of all the post-cranial bones, the forelimb is a part of the anatomy wherein it is relatively easy to discriminate between man and other primates. The type of analysis to which KP 271 was subjected is thus an excellent diagnostic tool to distinguish subtile differences between humans and other primates, both fossil and living. The results of this analysis show unequivocally that the fossil cannot be distinguished from modern humans. Please note, it cannot be distinguished not just from fossil humans, but modern humans! The obvious inference is that KP 271 is totally human.
Why then do evolutionists assign this fossil to A. africanus and not to Homo sapiens? W.W. Howells, one of the first, along with Patterson, to study the fossil answered that question when he wrote 14 years after its discovery,
The humeral fragment from Kanapoi, with a date of about 4.4 million could not be distinguished from Homo sapiens morphologically or by multivariate analysis by Patterson and myself in 1967 (or by much more searching analysis since then). We suggested that it might represent Austra-lopithecus because at that time allocation to Homo seemed preposterous, although it would be the correct one without the time element (1981: 79–80, emphasis added).
This fossil is too old to be human by an evolutionary time scale. Yet, it appears to be exactly that as far as “searching analysis” can tell. It predates even the newest discovered Australopithecine, A. anamensis. KP 271, along with other fossils, demonstrates that humans and southern apes existed at the same time. As far back as go the Australopithecines so also go humans. And that, to an evolutionist, cannot
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be! It is obvious then, that the philosophy of evolution, not the scientific facts, determines the naming of the fossils and the conclusions drawn from them.
To one unbiased by evolutionary philosophies the facts are clear. Man existed along with the apes from the beginning. Man is, and always was, man, not animal. No evolution from anything non-human has ever occurred. All the supposed evidence for an evolutionary origin of mankind evaporates when closely examined.
Yes, there are fossils in our family tree. These fossils are the remains of other humans, much like us, who lived and died a long time ago. For, “it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment” (Heb 9:27). It is possible that the original owner of KP 271 did, in fact, die and faced the judgment of God in Noah’s day. He, or she, was not in the Ark and thus suffered the same fate as the beasts that perished in that awful flood.
Today men,
deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and with water. By water also the world of that time was destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Pt 3: 5–7).
Just as Noah was spared by entering the Ark so humans today have the opportunity to be spared the judgment by trusting Jesus Christ for salvation.
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pt 3:9).
We implore you, on Christ’s behalf; Be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:21).
References
Howells, W.W.
1981 Homo Erectus in Human Descent: Ideas and Problems. In Homo, Erectus: Papers in Honor of Davidson Black, ed. B.A. Sigmon and J.S. Cybulski. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
McHenry, H.M.
1975 Fossils and the Mosaic Nature of Human Evolution. Science 190:425–30.
Patterson, B. et al.
1970 Geology and Fauna of a New Pliocene Locality in North Western Kenya. Nature 226:918–21.
Patterson, B., and Howells, B.B.
1967 Hominid Humeral Fragment from Early Pleistocene of Northwestern Kenya. Science 156:64–66.