BONE CARVINGS ADD TO NEANDERTAL PICTURE
Researchers say the discovery of carvings—i.e., human artwork—on
a raven’s bone in a Crimean cave supports growing speculation that
Neandertals had “comparable cognition” to modern humans.
The markings were on a 1.5 cm (half inch) bone, dated by the
researchers at 40,000 years. They said that if the markings were
carved “with the goal of producing a visually consistent pattern”,
it would provide the oldest evidence that Neandertals “
understood the value of symbolism and aesthetics”.
The study authors noted evidence that Neandertals, for
example, buried their dead, killed game, exploited plants (see
also Smart Neandertals used aspirin? Creation
39( 3): 7, 2017),
and crafted tools.
Such discoveries are consistent with Neandertals being
one of the post-Flood populations of humans descended
from Noah and his family following the dispersion from
Babel (Genesis 11). So they were fully human after all.
Majkić, A. et al., A decorated raven bone from the Zaskalnaya VI (Kolosovskaya) Neanderthal site, Crimea, PLoS ONE
12( 3): e0173435, 2017 |
Hale, T., 40,000-year-old raven bone carving suggests Neanderthals were artists, iflscience.com, March 2017.
MORE ON HOMO NALEDI
In May 2017, researchers gave an update on the alleged ‘ape-man’ species Homo naledi based on
further finds from the Rising Star cave system in South Africa.
This time the focus was on fossils from what is known as the Lesedi Chamber which has no
direct connection to the Dinaledi Chamber where Homo naledi was found and later reported on
At the time, Homo naledi was described as an ancient, primitive human species that lived
between 2 million and 100,000 years ago. The ‘new’ H. naledi fossils have been assigned an
age range of between 236,000 and 335,000 years and are placed ‘beside’ Homo sapiens in
These age range discrepancies alone raise more questions than answers for evolutionists.
Their mix of anatomical features seems odd even for evolutionary theory. This has led ape-man
researcher Dr Peter Line to suggest an interesting and very plausible environmental hypothesis—
a dietary deficiency, not DNA. Some evolutionist experts have proposed the same explanation
for Indonesia’s famous ‘Hobbit/ape-man’ fossils. See Dr Line’s review of the latest claims
Surugue, L., Homo Naledi: Mystery human species lived alongside Homo Sapiens, International
Business Times, May 2017.
WATER DRAGONS CHANGE QUICKLY
ave identified “rapid genetic and morphological
differentiation” in water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) in several city
parks on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.
The researchers said similar “rapid evolutionary change” had been
observed in creatures isolated on archipelagos and oceanic islands.
They concluded that the changes seen in water dragons was a case
for rapid evolution that “may, in time, favour adaptive diversification”.
They said the populations showed significant differentiation in
“relative body size, relative head and limb morphology and relative
forelimb and hindlimb length”.
Informed creationists have long known that natural selection can easily
cause major variation in short time periods. Because it acts on the created
genetic information already present, these changes do not support molecules-to-man evolution (i.e. no new information is added). Further, such speciation is
rapid, and actually helps us understand how the limited number of kinds on the
Ark would rapidly diversify after the Flood (see
creation.com/speedy and creation.
com/qa-speciation). However, water dragons will always be water dragons.
Frère, C.H. et al., Archipelagos of the Anthropocene: rapid and extensive differentiation of native terrestrial vertebrates in a single metropolis, Mol. Ecol.
26(9):2466–2481, May 2017 | doi: 10.1111/mec.14042.
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