>My question to her was, "Why are there apes running
>around today if the half-ape/half-human species were better developed than
>the full-apes? If the environment changed and the half-ape/half-human
>species died off, wouldn't the full-apes already have been extinct? How,
>then, did the full-ape become a half-ape/half-human if it did not lose its
>old genetic makup (full-ape become extinct)?
This seems to reflect a misconception of evolutionary theory. Darwinian
evolution would postulate that the "half-ape/half-human" population(s) were
adaptively superior *in some environmental context*. However, it does not
require that "half-ape/half-human" populations would be adaptively superior
to "full-apes" in *all environments* of the time. Thus,for example,
"full-apes" could remain and flourish in tropical forest habitat while
"half-apes/half-humans" evolved to expoit savannah habitats.
Tom
H. Thomas Goodwin
Department of Biology
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104
(616) 471-3242
goodwin@andrews.edu