Posted by Cygnus [Cygnus] on November 24, 1999 at 21:07:06 {BlpRHB6gpcRsyhp1gUYkL4bdfUTIaI}:
In Reply to: **Oneglove Guess what??? posted by DaJahVeu on November 24, 1999 at 19:22:36:
Okay, here goes, although I fear it won't help any.
Modern apes and modern humans have common ancestry. Creatures that more closely resemble humans than apes, but are now extinct, are called homonids. Technically, a homonid is a type of ape, but they did not come from modern apes.
Ardipithecus lived over 4 million years ago and had a mix of chimpanzee and human traits, but was neither. It is probably the earliest known hominid we have evidence of.
Australopithecines existed 3-4 million years ago, and resemble both apes and humans. "Lucy" discovered in 1977 is the most famous and is the oldest specimen of these that we have. These creatures were small in stature, and have the smallest brain of any homo species. Their brains were smaller and had less weight than a gorilla, but since they were also app. 1/8 the size of a gorilla, proportionately the australopithecine brain was much bigger.
After these came homo habilus about 2 million years ago. They had brains about half of ours in volume and weight. Skulls of these were first discovered in the early 1960s.
After these were homo erectus, examples of which are "Peking Man" and "Java Man." 1.5 m.y.a.
The Neanderthals showed up later, and while somewhat similar to modern man, apparently they are now considered separate from homo sapiens. At least that's my recollection from most recent analysis.
Since none of these species exist today, and modern humans do, but didn't then, and since each creature gradually shows more and more human characterists and traits, then evolution is the only viable answer to how modern humans appeared.
Unfortunately, my scanner doesn't seem to want to work tonight. If it works tomorrow morning, I'll scan a couple of pages from a recent Time magazine dealing with human evolution. The paleontological illusrations would demonstrate what I'm talking about. You know, pictures, words, thousands, and all that.
For now, here's a chart I'll steal from one of the many websites dealing with human evolution. Notice that modern apes are completely separate from human evolution.
This of course only covers the very basis, and is limited to human evolution. As others have pointed out, and as the TalkOrigins website document, speciation has been demonstrated. So please read those articles.
And, there's no need for CNN. We've known since the mid-1850s that evolution and natural selection is the prime cause of modern species.