Re: Savanna = outdated rubbish (data contradicts comparative imagination

On Jul 9, 9:42 am, Marc Verhaegen <m_verhae...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Op 09-07-2007 14:14, in artikel
1183983270.903623.46...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Lee Olsen
<paleoc...@xxxxxxxxxxx> schreef:

http://users.ugent.be/~mvaneech/Report.html
Mario Vaneechoutte: "Verhaegen's reasoning was considered as
idiosyncratic by most of the participants."


Jason Eshleman: "You are asking for someone to contradict something
that you've not made a case for. You are asking someone to prove a
negative. This isn't science, though I suspect you don't know what
science is and as such will continue your mentally ill diatribes."

Marc's mentally ill diatribe: "AAT is based on the behavior-anatomy-
physiology-DNA of living humans vs.
chimps & other animals. Sea/lake-side ancestors collecting coconuts,
fruits, bird eggs, turtles, shell-, crayfish, algae etc."


Marc, being a non-scientist amateur, can only imagine broad
generalizations, which as Eshleman pointed out, there is no case for
eggs between the P/H split and Gona.

He does not understand that archaeology can identify what kind of
"bird eggs" are involved with early Homo. At Gona, 2.6 mya, the
closest association to the core tools is with "ostrich" eggs. Of
course we all know that ostriches are found where humans sweat a lot,
like on a savanna for instance. The ostrich is clearly not a swamp
bird.

Marc also imagines early Homo eating coconuts in the time-line
between
the P/H split 5+- Ma and Gona. No evidence for this has been cited by
Marc, yet the odds of coconut evidence to be found is just as likely
as the odds of cut-mark evidence on bone surviving in the
archaeological record if there were any to be found. Where is this
non-
existent evidence hiding?

At this point the wet apers usually invoke the Indian Ocean Atlantis
hypothesis (IOW, lost at sea) based solely on a "negative" as
Eshleman
pointed out above to cover for their lack of evidence and overworked
imagination.
The Indian Ocean Atlantis hypothesis of course can be easily refuted
because there is something called continuity in archaeology that Marc
has failed to grasp.
If the imaginary lost early Homo were living somewhere else than on
the savanna between P/H split 5+- Ma and Gona, then a trail
(continuity) from that location (eailier) to Gona (later) should be
as
easy to identify as the continuity evidence between one savanna basin
to the next by trace sources of exotic rocks. IOW, there should be a
trail from the Indian Ocean (for example) to Gona. Well there isn't
any such evidence. It would not matter if the coast evidence was
buried or not, the continuity would still have to exist between the
two locations with the earliest dated exotic rocks, coconuts, shell
fish etc. found closer to the coast and scattered out from that
point.
The record is absolutely silent on such evidence. It no more exists
than Atlantis.

The most parsemounious explanation then is the early Homo evolved in
place where the first evidence typical of Homo is found, read Gona 2.6
mya.
Got it?



- Tobias 1995: "We were all profoundly and unutterably wrong! ... All the
former savannah supporters (including myself) must now swallow our earlier
words"
- Wood 1996: "the ?savannah¹ hypothesis of human origins, in which the
cooling begat the savannah and the savannah begat humanity, is now
discredited"
- Stringer 1997: "One of the strong points about the aquatic theory is in
explaining the origin of bipedality. If our ancestors did go into the water,
that would forced them to walk upright"
- Tobias 1998: "Bamford identified fossil vines or lianas of Dichapetalum in
the same Member 4: such vines hang from forest trees and would not be
expected in open savannah ... if ever our earliest ancestors were savannah
dwellers, we must have been the worst, the most profligate urinators there"
- Stringer 2001: "we lack plausible models for the origins of bipedalism and
have agreed that wading in water can facilitate bipedal locomotion (as
observed in other normally quadrupedal primates) ... As for coastal
colonisation, I argued ... this was an event in the late Pleistocene that
may have facilitated the spread of modern humans"
- Wrangham 2005: "Here I follow the conventional assumption that hominins
began in the savanna ... the composition of the Okavango as a network of
islands could favor the evolution of bipedalism. For those who envisage
bipedalism as facilitated by the need to traverse or exploit aquatic
environments, an inland delta that generates low islands termitogenically or
hydrodynamically offers rich scenarios"
- Alemseged 2006: "I believe we should just put the savannah theory aside²
- Thorpe cs.2007: "early hominins occupied woodland environments, not open
or even bush-savannah environments (such as sites including Allia Bay,
Aramis, Assa Issie & now Laetoli) ... they retained long grasping forelimbs,
which are more obviously relevant in an arboreal context"



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Marc was right?
    ... understand why the first evidence for early Homo is on the savanna. ... former savannah supporters must now swallow our earlier ... such vines hang from forest trees and would not be ... islands could favor the evolution of bipedalism. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Eritrean stone tools prove use of marine resources 2 million years too late
    ... former savannah supporters must now swallow our earlier ... All the fossil evidence adds up to ... in hominids, but I do consider it plausible. ... islands could favor the evolution of bipedalism. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: savanna theory
    ... Why do you exclude open woodlands from the definition of a savannah? ... You asked for evidence of the spread of savannah 2 million years ago. ... Water 5-6. ... Yes, of course, you're perfectly right on this point - "ALL evolution ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Evolutionary ethics (Re: What does an evolutionist actually believe?)
    ... > ideological absolutes (rather than the weight of evidence). ... the reason to wage war was "Iraq has WMD". ... > cannot imagine trying to live on a savannah without at least an atlatl. ... >> back to quadrupedalism, ...
    (sci.anthropology)
  • Re: Evolutionary ethics (Re: What does an evolutionist actually believe?)
    ... ideological absolutes (rather than the weight of evidence). ... cannot imagine trying to live on a savannah without at least an atlatl. ... > back to quadrupedalism, ... > reasons for and a strong selection towards long rear legs. ...
    (sci.anthropology)
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