He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psalm 2:4
"A team of researchers recently looked at artistic renderings of
humans’ alleged ape-like ancestors. They openly discussed a wide range
of issues of concern in how these are depicted.
The team noted that there have been very few ‘hominin’ fossils ever
found. In fact, they highlighted that the total number of finds is less
than the number of anthropologists active today.
Lead researcher Ryan Campbell wrote, “I expected to find consistency
in those reconstructions displayed in natural history museums, but the
differences, even there, were so severe that I almost thought all
previous practitioners had never encountered a single hominid
reconstruction before commencing their own.”
Examples of issues in such reconstructions included skin color,
placement of the eyeballs in the sockets, eyebrow position, nose/nostril
shape, mouth width, hair length and distribution, and ear size. All
these can greatly change the appearance of the face, making it look more
ape- or human-like, depending on the artist’s preconceived ideas.
The researchers were concerned that there was very little empirical
evidence backing up how such reconstructions were done. The team decided
to reconstruct two of the most famous supposed ape ancestors. One was
‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis), from an alleged 3.2 million years ago (mya). The other was the ‘Taung child’ (Australopithecus africanus),
which died at around 3 years of age, supposedly 2.8 mya. To highlight
some of the differences, and the subjective nature of it all, two
versions of the Taung child were created. One was more apelike, the
other more humanlike.
Lucy was not so easy to reconstruct as most of her cranial bones are
missing. They used her jaw, and scaled down a skull from a much larger
male (which did not perfectly fit) to make their reconstruction, and
applied human skin thickness.
The team then applied skin tone to each—Lucy’s similar to that of a
pygmy chimp and the Taung child to that of modern South African humans. The highly subjective nature of the reconstructions were
presented in the research paper.
In addressing their original question about museums they suggested that
while their artistic renditions are technically impressive, “There are
potential educational harms in presenting unscientific reconstructions
of hominins under the shroud of presumed validity.” All australopithecines like these are an extinct group of apish primates
not on the human ancestral line.
This has been conceded by even some
evolutionist experts, who point out that their unique anatomy was not
‘in between’ humans and great apes."
CMI
