KP 271 (a fossil humerus) was human
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Claim
The fossil humerus KP 271 is an apparently human fossil from 4 million years ago, which, according to the standard evolutionary model, is well before the appearance of modern humans.
Source
- Lubenow, Marvin L., 1992. Bones of Contention: a Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils. Baker Book House. Grand Rapids MI.
Responses
- It is an even bigger problem for YAC, which claims that the universe did not even exist 4 million years ago. So I fail to see the point of mentioning it.
- This is also a flagrant lie, as the discoverers of KP 271 themselves, Bryan Patterson and William W. Howells, conclude that the bone belongs to the Australopithecus genus. Lubenow is the only one to claim that anyone ever thought it belonged in Homo, and even very brazenly claims that Henry McHenry claimed it to be a H. sapiens bone, despite full knowledge of its age. This flies in the face of everything McHenry has ever written, none of which even supports the existence of the Homo genus that far back in time. Lubenow has intentionally taken McHenry out of context.
- In fact, the humeri of all hominids between the characteristics of, and including, humans and chimpanzees, are effectively indistinguishable, despite Lubenow's claim that "for this type of fossil it is relatively easy to discriminate between humans and other primates". This is the point on which McHenry was remarking when he said that the specimen was indistinguishable from modern Homo sapiens. He was not claiming that it was a Homo sapiens humerus.
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Fallacies contained in this claim
- Equivocation ("apparently human" is taken to mean "believed to be human" rather than "superficially resembles human")
Links
- Foley, Jim., 2002. Creationist Arguments: Anomalous Fossils. [1]
References
- McHenry, H. Fossils and the Mosaic Nature of Human Evolution. Science 190: 428.
