Evolution

4 Pages 987 Words

Since evolutionists generally do not believe that man evolved from any ape that is now living, they look to extinct apes in the fossil record to provide them with their desired evidence. What scientists look for particularly are any anatomical feature that looks "intermediate" between that of apes and man. Fossil apes having such features are generally thought to be ancestral to man (or at least collateral relatives on the Tree of Life) and are called hominids. Living apes are not included as hominids. The similarities between humans and living apes are mainly isolated to the way they look. Evolutionists are willing to accept some minor similarities between extinct apes and men as being proof of ancestry.
Fossils of hominids are typically fragmentary and rare enough that even many scientists studying the origin of man have never actually handled one. Many scientific papers on human evolution are based on only casts, descriptions, and photos of original specimens. Scientists are compensated well for first-hand studies of real hominid fossils but such opportunities are typically confined to those lucky enough to find them, and the chosen few they permit to handle their fragile specimens. Since there is much more prestige in finding an ancestor of man than an ancestor of living apes, there is immense pressure on paleoanthropologists to decide in favor of hominid status for any of the exceedingly rare, ape-like fossils they find. It would seem that the living apes have pretty much been left to find their own ancestors.
With almost no exception, primate fossils consist of bones and teeth rather than the soft organs of the body. The most frequently found primate fossils are teeth, jaws, and basal skull fragments. These types of fossils are more common because they are harder. Much of the evidence for the ape ancestry of man is based on similarities in teeth and jaws. Contrary to that of man, apes tend to have large incisor and canine...