The Lost Forest
Page 63
Chapter 62
ERECTUS! OUR ANCESTOR?
The conclusion suggested that borneensis had gone off on an evolutionary tangent of its own, developing distinct features not shared by modern humans. They populations of Borneo became progressively more isolated from other Asian erectus populations.
‘There is a possibility that modern humans could have been descendants of Asian Homo erectus,’ said Pierre
‘There’s no way modern humans could be direct descendants of Homo erectus,’ said Etxeberri. ‘The borneensis material suggests that sapiens and erectus overlapped in time. Erectus can’t resemble what you have found and be our ancestor at the same time,’ he said. ‘It’s possible that borneensis is a side branch of erectus.’
‘The lack of other data from Borneo makes things complicated. Fossils found at Trinil and Sangiran sites in Java range in age from about 1.8 million years old to maybe as young as 780,000 years old, whilst others found at Ngandong have been dated to just 50,000 years old.’
‘Borneensis is so much more recent!’
‘Like that of Ngandong, it’s contemporary with Homo sapiens,’ said Pierre.
‘The question is, are borneensis and Ngandong different species or sub-species?’
‘Based on variations in skull shape I would think that borneensis is a transitional form, bringing borneensis closer to classical Homo erectus than those found at Trinil and Sangiran.’
‘Ngandong looks like a lot of the other material found in Java, but borneensis shows clear evolutionary traits.’
‘Sure there are some features though it’s not clear whether these are taxonomically significant or useful as species indicators. My opinion is that they are part of the normal variability seen in any species.’
‘I don’t really agree with that, there are clear difference that show borneensis is much closer to sapiens than Ngandong!’
‘Pierre, don’t get me wrong, but I think they’re grasping at straws to suggest that borneensis is an evolved form, another species.’
‘Why not, I don’t have to tell you that evolution is much more rapid than we thing. Take us today or in recent times, it’s a matter of scientific fact that there are real differences in the human race today, anybody who has travelled can see that, in fact just look around you in here,. Do you resemble typical Indonesians, do typical Indonesians resemble Papuans?’
‘Come off it Pierre!’
‘No, it’s a question of political correctness, intellectuals in their ignorance claim that race differences are minimal, unimportant, or non-existent. In reality they are minimal but scientifically speaking real in genetic terms, something which is vital for the search of human origins.’
‘The problem lies in the definition of the term “race”,’ said Paul. ‘anybody can tell the difference between an Eskimo and a Khoisan hunter gatherer from southern Africa or still again Suede. The intellectual political correct Parisian refuses to see the difference. But we molecular biologists can, we can determine from a person’s DNA his “racial” origin or his ancestral mixture. In forensic medicine DNA polymorphisms is use this with precision.’
‘Changes have been continuous in human populations and our present day evolved during the past 15,000 years for example,’ said Jaros. ‘Europeans before 10,000 to 20,000 years ago did not yet show the characteristic features we see today, which means that populations can evolve fast by adapting genetically to the local ecology.’
‘That’s what I am saying, the difference between Ngandong and borneensis covers a period of maybe fifty thousand years, that’s enormous, why sapiens is just one hundred thousand years old!’
‘Work in Australia ancient mitochondrial DNA has shown that the present day native Australian population is not that which was present forty or fifty thousand years ago.’
‘Quite, the 100,000 years or so since the exodus from Africa has been sufficient for natural selection to create non-overlapping phenotypic differences for skin colour and hair texture. The revolution in molecular population genetics did not show that race differences are small or nonexistent. It only showed that evolution works much faster than most people had thought!’
‘Just take Africans and Papuans. These two races are similar in appearance, with dark skin and frizzy hair. However, molecular studies show that Papuans and Africans are as distant genetically as you can get in our species. The evident reason for their relatively great genetic distance is that the Papuans are descended from an early wave of migrants out of Africa, and the reason for their physical resemblance is that both races never left the tropics and were therefore subject to the same environmental-driven selection.’
‘The problem with the Out of Africa theory,’ said Pierre, ‘is that it has been so widely acknowledged that it has become an accepted truth which in effect stifles any other vision concerning the development and dispersal of humanity. The Out of Africa scenario is a tale the shows man surviving and conquering the world against all adversity. As a result any discovery that does not conform to this image is immediately put down.’
Pierre liked to point to fossils and stone tools in the Riwat and Pabbi Hills regions where stone tools have been found dating to more than two million years of age by a distinguished scientist, Professor Dennell, who served as Director of the British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan.