please explain the apparent discrepancy

Glenn.Morton@ORYX.COM
Mon 28 Aug 1995 12:49 CT

I would like to add one other item for consideration in my answer to Gordie's
post this morning. Some have objected to the assumption of the
existence of certain objects in the fossil record prior to the date of the
first example. I was criticized for this in the mesonychid-whale discussions
back around the first of July. The point I would like to make, is that
if the fossil and historical records are to be interpreted that way, then iron
was produced without a bellows which is usually considered necessary for iron
production. The first iron object is found long before the first example of a
bellows. The reason is simple, wood and leather which must have made the
bellows decay much more rapidly than iron.Thus we are more likely to find the
bellows long after the first iron object.

Secondly, if we are to go strictly by the appearance of objects in the record
with no ability to reasonably infer existence at other times then the
historical record becomes rather strange. The first Maya farming was found at
a site dated 4500 years ago. The second example of Maya farming was found
3000 years ago. To assume that we can go absolutely no further than the
examples we have in hand would lead us to conclude that there was NO farming
between 4499 and 3001 years ago in Maya regions. This of course is rather
strange. We would also have to assume that since the ancient Egyptians didn't
have the bellows, they had to have a lot of guys blow on the fire to make it
hot enough to smelt iron.
In the case of the tarsiers, we would have to assume that the oldest
Tarsier in the fossil record had nothing to do with the second oldest since
they didn't exist in the interim.
Obviously we can not treat the fossil record in that fashion. Reasonable
extrapolations from the data we have are fine if they don't go too far. It is
quite unlikely that we have found the bones of the first H.erectus on earth so
it is quite likely that there are older erectus's to be found.

glenn