Headline - "Humankind's First Steps"

Major Heading - "With the unearthing of a very ancient ancestor, human evolution can now be traced back more than 4 million years through fossils."

Viz:-

Ardipithecus ramidus - 4.5 Myr

Australopithecus anamensis - 4.2 Myr

Australopithecus afarensis ('Lucy') - 3.5 Myr

Homo habilis - 2.0 Myr

Homo erectus - 1.0 Myr

Homo sapiens - 0.2 Myr

(1) No complete skeleton was found. The species is based on an analysis of 26 skeletal fragments, consisting of: - 1 head of a humerus; 2 heads of a tibia; 1 radius; 1 temporal bone; 1 complete mandible; 3 fragments of mandibles; 2 maxilla fragments; & 15 teeth. p:567

(2) The holotype is a complete mandible (KNM-KP 29281). It was found at Kanapoi in 1994.

(3) Part of a left temporal bone from a skull was included in the holotype. It was found near the jawbone but it may have come from another individual, which may have been another species. The discoverers assumed that it was "probably from the same individual". p:565

(4) Twelve fossil fragments found in Kanapoi (Kenya) in 1994 were included in the anamensis skeleton. Another fragment (KMN-KP271), the head of a humerus (arm bone), was actually found in 1965. Where was it found? What layer did it come from? We are not told.

(5) Thirteen other fragments that make up anamensis came from Allia Bay, approximately 150 Km away, on the edge of Lake Turkana (Kenya). One fragment was found in 1982, two in 1988, and the other ten in 1995.

(6) The specimens at Allia Bay were spread over a distance of 1Km.

• "Specimens from East Lake Turkana come from site 261-1 [Allia Bay] and a nearby locality 1 Km to the north-east in Area 261." p:565

(7) There is a great deal of variation in the jaws and teeth in the collection. This difference was stated to "probably be attributed to sexual dimorphism". No mention was made that the fragments could have come from other species. p:565

(8) The ear canal in the temporal bone looks like a chimpanzee's ear canal. Why couldn't the bone have come from a chimpanzee?

• "The external acoustic meatus is small and its shape in outline, a vertically oriented ellipse, is most often found in chimpanzees." p:566

(9) The tibia (leg bone), KNM-KP29285, chosen to represent anamensis, was not found with the holotype.

(10) The biggest problem with the tibia is that it had the middle section missing. It may actually have been the parts of two separate tibias.

• "We estimate that between a third and a half of the total length of the bone is missing." p:566

(11) The 2 tibia fragments were said to suggest that anamensis was bipedal (walked on two legs), even though a complete skeleton was not found to verify this hypothesis.

• "The most important features of this bone are that they indicate bipedalism." p:566

(12) This guessed bipedalism was altered to definite bipedalism in the conclusions of the report.

• "We conclude that bipedal locomotion had evolved at least half a million years before the previous earliest evidence (the footprints at Laetoli) suggests." p:566
• "A tibia establishes that hominids were bipedal at least half a million years before the previous earliest evidence showed." p:565

(13) The estimation of the weight of an anamensis individual was based on this incomplete tibia. It was calculated by comparing it with the anatomy of a human.

• "Using regression equations based on humans, the estimated body weight of this individual is 55 Kg (based on the upper epiphysis) and 47 Kg (based on the lower epiphysis)." p:566

(14) It was stated that many features of the tibia "resembles African apes". However, the arm bone found (a humerus) was said to be "human-like." p:566

(15) This humerus was also used to estimate the individual's weight by comparison with human data.

• ".... an individual judged by regressions based on humans to have weighed about 58 Kg." p:568

(16) These skeletal parts, some ape-like & some human-like, were lumped together under the guise of mosaic evolution - "mosaic evolution appears common in the Hominidae". p:568

(17) The actual rocks in which the fossils were alleged to be found were not dated. Instead, crystals of feldspar were separated from layers of claystone ("probably former pumices") in the rock strata, and these were analysed. p:568

(18) The dates were also calculated using correlation. This means that the palaeontologists constructed a 'complete' geological column based on the probability that the layers on rock at different sites could be meshed accurately together. This included samples at great distance from the sites.

• "... the Kanapoi Tuff has been correlated with the Suteijin Tuff of the Chemeron Formation in the Baringo Basin. Although not dated, this tephra is about 20m below a geochemical correlative of the Lokochot Tuff (3.5 Myr)." p:571

(20) The ages of the crystals were calibrated by comparing them with a sample of sanidine fluence monitor. The monitor consists of crystals of minerals separated from Fish Canyon Tuff, Colorado. The monitor crystals had been previously dated at 27.9 million years old using K/Ar dating. p:569

(21) K-Ar dating has been shown experimentally to be completely erroneous. Therefore, the dates for these Kanapoi rocks are just as erroneous because they were calculated by comparing them to a K-Ar date.

(22) The surface Kalokwanya basalt rock layer at Kanapoi, between 3 & 5 Km from the fossil sites, was dated at 3.11 & 3.41 million years old also using K-Ar dating. p:570

(23) Another sample of rock was analysed from a site about 1.3 Km from the fossils. This was used to calculate the age of the rocks ...

• "A further feldspar concentrate was prepared from sample 95-38 collected from a correlative horizon located 1.3 Km north north-east of section CSF94-8." p:570
• "White et al reported an Ar-Ar weighted mean age of 3.89±0.02 Myr for feldspars from tuff VT-1 in the Maka area of Ethiopia. This tuff is regarded as a correlative of the Moiti Tuff on geochemical grounds." p:571

(24) The fossils from Allia Bay "derive from beneath or within the Moiti Tuff." p:571

(25) The age of the Moiti Tuff was calculated at 3.92 Myr by Ar-Ar dating. It was previously dated as 4.10 Myr using the K-Ar method. p:571

(26) The age of the fossils is justified using the K-Ar ages of the overlying basalt (the surface layer), rather than by measuring the ages of the many rock layers above them.

• "A younger limit for the deposition of the sedimentary rocks at Kanapoi is given by K-Ar ages of 3.11±0.04 Myr and 3.41±0.04 Myr on whole-rock samples of the Kalokwanya Basalt from the scarp north-east of Kanapoi. The measured ages on the basalts are regarded as reliable minima ..." p:571

(27) The rock ages gave dates for the fossils of ~4.17 - >3.4 Myr old. Notice that they selected 3.4, and not 3.1 Myr, as the minimum age derived from the Basalt rocks. This was most likely done to make the age range fit into the older end of the ages for 'Lucy' (3.0-3.6 Myr).

(28) This range of ages was purposely narrowed using palaeogeographic evidence. This was to ensure that anamensis was definitely older than Lucy.

• "The fossils come from the lower part of the Kanapoi sequence, which is correlated with the Lonyumum Lake phase of the Turkana Basin ... The Lonyumum Lake sediments are overlain by the Moiti Tuff, which has an age of 3.9 Myr. Although the Moiti Tuff has not been found at Kanapoi, it occurs overlying the Lonyumum Lake sediments at Nakoret, about 50 km north of Kanapoi ..." p:571
• "On this basis we believe that the hominid fossils from Kanapoi are most probably confined to an age interval from 4.2 to 3.9 Myr." p:571

(29) The fossils were stated to vary in age from 3.5-4.1Myr (p:571). This large gap in evolutionary time could just as easily indicate that the bones were from different species.

• "... the holotype mandible [is] ... constrained in age between 4.17 and 4.12 Myr ... The tibia [and humerus are] ... older than 3.5 Myr and younger than 4.1 Myr." p:571

(30) No discussion was produced in the report for the radius, and no analysis was made of it. This would have given more insight into the species. Why was it left out???

(31) Based on the assumption that all crystals in a rock layer are the same age, and contain the same amounts of radioactive Argon, samples which differed from the rest were excluded from the analysis. This is contrary to standard statistical principles for such small samples (n=9).

• "Any measured age differing by more than two standard deviations from the mean was eliminated as an outlier and a new mean and standard deviation of the population calculated." p:570
• "For each Kanapoi sample, one single crystal result was excluded by this criteria." p:570

(32) Descriptions were given of the environments at the prehistoric sites when the fossils were formed. The writers of the report confessed that this was pure speculation, so we have confirmation that these descriptions are not factual.

• "Dry, possibly open, wooded or bushland conditions are indicated by the Kanapoi mammalian macro- and microfauna, although a wide gallery forest would have almost certainly been present on the large river that brought in the sediments ... These sites stand in contrast to Arimis, which is interpreted to have been closed woodland ... The Laetoli palaeo-environment is believed to have been rather open with grassland, scattered trees and nearby woodland." p:571