Why Noah May have been Homo erectus

Glenn Morton (GRMorton@gnn.com)
Thu, 09 May 1996 21:10:18

Hi Dick,

You wrote:

>As I understand it Noah (the
>Australopithicine) started at sea level after the Mediterranean basin
>filled with water.

As I have said many times, I want Noah to be one of the species of Homo,
Homo erectus or Homo habilis. But I am willing to be open to the
Australopithecine option. I agree that as of this moment there is no
evidence that they existed prior to 2.5 Myr. ago. But small populations
can remain hidden for a long time and leave no fossil record of
themselves.

Given a speciation event with just a few individuals in the new
population, it is quite unlikely that any of those individuals would be
fossilized. With a small population of individuals in the post flood
world, they would be unlikely to leave a trace in the fossil record.
Do we have the oldest homo habilis in our museums? I doubt it. That
would mean that we found the first one. That would be ridiculous to
believe that.

What happens is that as we go back in time for any species/object, and the
examples of that species/object become fewer, it is increasingly difficult
to find them. One measure of how hard likely it is for a species/object
to remain unfound in the fossil record is to look at the first and second
occurrences of any species / object. The gap between them can be quite
long.

I am suggesting that Homo was on earth merely 3 million years prior to the
first fossil occurance. This is not much time compared to most of the
gaps. When you are examining the list remember that quite often the second
occurance was once upon a time the oldest occurrance and there was no
evidence that the species existed prior to that time. A gap of 3 million
years for a small population is nothing.

The list

LAND LIFE 400 million year gap.
"1.2 billion Hollow filaments Arizona
800 million Hollow filaments California
~Robert J. Horodyski and L. Paul Knauth, "Life on Land in the
Precambrian," Science, Jan. 28, 1994, p. 494-498. see also "When
Life First Sprouted on Land," Science News, March 12, 1994, p.
173

CAECILIANS
First fossil Caecilian 175-180 million years ago
Second fossil Caecilian 75 million years ago
Science News, 138, Oct. 27, 1990, p. 270.

TETRAPODS Notice the gaps of 5-23 Myr.
Myr ago
375 Panderichthyidae
368 Obruchavichthyids
363 Ichthyostega 7 digits on hind leg
Acanthostega 8 digits fore & aft
Tulerpeton 6 digits on fore and hind
340 Amniator
Crassigyrinus
Loxommatoidea
Temnospondyl
Colosteidae
Acanthracosauria
~Per E. Ahlberg, Andrew R. Milner, "The Origin and Early Diversification
of Tetrapods," Nature, 368, April 7, 1994, p. 507

DINOSAURS

240 unidentified tracks from France
228 oldest dinosaur fossil from South America
225 my tracks of turkey sized dinosaur Ft. Wingate Fm. New Mexico
200 my track from North Carolina

Matt Crenson, "Geologists report oldest sign of Dinosaurs in North
America,"Dallas Morning News, May 9, 1994, p. 8D

TARSIERS 10 years ago there was no fossil record at all of Tarsiers

"Perhaps the most spectacular of the Shanghuang finds consists of isolated
cheek teeth (lower molars and an upper pre-molar) that are practically
indistinguishable from those of modern tarsiers. The moder genus Tarsius
contains fine closely related species confined to islands in southeast
Asia, and until eight years ago there was no known fossil record. The age
of the genus was then pushed back to the early Miocene by the discovery in
Thailand of dental remains allocated to the species Tarsius thailandica.
The Shanghuang specimens have also been allocated to Tarsius (species T.
eocaenus), which represents a dramatic increase in the antiquity of that
genus by almost 30 million years. Occurrence of a modern primate genus as
far back as the Miocene has a precedent in the recognistion of Aotus
dindensis from Colombia as a direct relative of modern Owl monkeys." ~R.
D. Martin, "Bonanza at Shanghuang," Nature, 368, April 14, 1994, p. 586.

TURTLES
First turtle--200 myr ago
second turtle--140 million years ago
~Eugene S. Gaffney and James W. Kitching, "The Most Ancient African
Turtle,"Nature, 369, May 5, 1994, p. 55.

BIRDS
Archaeopteryx 147 million years ago.
Sinornis santensis 139 million years ago.
Las Hoyas bird 132 million years ago.
Ambiortus dementjevi 125 million years ago.
~Paul C. Sereno and Rao Chenggang, "Early Evolution of Avian Flight and
Perching: New Evidence from the Lower Cretaceous of China," Science,
Feb. 14,1992, p. 845

COPROLITES
"Here we annouce the discovery of coprolites (fossil faeces) in Upper
Silurian (412 Myr) and Lower Devonian (390 Myr) rocks from the Welsh
Borderland that pre-date examples of similar composition in the
Carboniferous by about 90 million years. "~Dianne Edwards, et al,
"Coprolites as evidence for Plant-Animal Interaction in Siluro-Devonian
Terrestrial Ecosystems," Nature, Sept.28, 1995, p. 329

MUSHROOMS
"The remains of two gilled mushrooms were recently discovered in Turonian
(90-94 million years old, mid-Cretaceous) amber from central New Jersey,
USA. (Theamber was found by G.R. Case, P. D. Borodin and J. J. Leggett in
November 1994) This is more than three times older than the previously
reported oldest gilled mushroom, Coprinites dominicana, from Dominican
amber, which was recently dated at 25-30 million years (revising an
original estimate of 40 million years)."~D. S. Hibbett, D. Grimaldi, and
M. J. Donoghue, "Cretaceous Mushrooms in Amber," Nature, 377, Oct. 12,
1995, p. 487

SUBDUCTION (continental drift)

First 2 billion years
second 1.1 billion years
~Andreas Moller, et al, "Evidence for a 2 GA subduction zone: Eclogites in
the Usagaran belt of Tanzania," Geology, Dec. 1995, p. 1067

SHARKS
first and second occurrence 455 million years ago ordovician
"Until now, the oldest shark remains had hailed from the Silurian period,
some 25 million years younger." R. Monastersky, "The first shark: To Bite
or Not to Bite?" Science News, 149, Feb. 17, 1996, p. 101

VASCULAR PLANTS
1st evidence 435 myr
2nd evidence 415 myr
~Chongyang Cal, Shu Ouyang, Yi Wang, Zongjie Fang, Jiayu rong Liangyu
Geng and Xingxue Li "An Early Silurian Vascular Plant," Nature, 379, Feb.
15, 1996, p. 592

SPIDERS
First 295 Myr
second 240 Myr.
~Paul A. Selden, "Fossil mesothele spiders," Nature, 379, Feb. 8, 1996,
p. 498

THRIPS(insect)
1st example 228 MYR
2nd example 210 MYR
~Nicholas C. Fraser et al, "A Triassic Lagerstatte from eastern North
America," Nature, 380, April 18, 1996, p.615

MOTHS
1st example 228 MYR
2nd example 210 MYR
~Nicholas C. Fraser et al, "A Triassic Lagerstatte from eastern North
America," Nature, 380, April 18, 1996, p.617

BEETLES
1st occurrance 250 MYR
2nd occurrance 228 MYR
~Nicholas C. Fraser et al, "A Triassic Lagerstatte from eastern North
America," Nature, 380, April 18, 1996, p.617

glenn

Foundation,Fall and Flood
http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm