Homo sapiens

There were a few frauds and mistakes (like Piltdown Man and Nebraska Man) and evolutionary dead ends in our study of what leads up to Homo sapiens. We are beginning to get the picture and have a lot more that is yet to be learned.

The first time the Homo species appeared was as Homo habilis. Homo habilis was known as "handy man" because of the tools found with his fossils. Homo habilis was the first to leave Africa. Africa seems to be where man originated. During the whole time that Homo habilis existed, his brain size continued to grow.

Homo erectus continued to migrate away from Africa. His brain was larger than Homo habilis. Homo erectus was the first to use fire. The use of fire would change life considerably; he could now see in the dark, he could scare predators away, it would make it easier to keep warm and food could now be cooked. I would think that cooked meat would taste considerably better than raw meat. Peking Man, Turkana Child, and Java Man were all Homo erectus.

At the point were the family tree split into Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens; they actually co-existed for awhile. Any readers of Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series (which are wonderful!) already know this. Approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years ago these two species came into contact with one another. They had comparable brain size. They obviously believed in the afterlife. Homo sapiens neanderthal had a more muscular build and was stronger than Homo sapiens. To see what Homo sapiens looked like just go look in the mirror.

The reason that Homo sapiens made it and Homo sapiens neanderthal did not is probably that Homo sapiens was more able to adapt than Homo sapiens neanderthal. You have to go with the flow and Neanderthal man did not...therefore became extinct. Trying to swim upstream does not work...only trout can do it successfully.

Now after reading about all the types and succession of early man, how can anyone say there are no transitional fossils? The statement, which I encountered, "There are no transitional fossils, therefore no evolution" is just more creationist imbecility. All fossils are transitional fossils!

Jackie Wellman
www.jackiewellman.com