>>SJ>The issue was whether the Jinmium art was the product of
>>>H. erectus or H. sapiens. If it is 176,000 years old, then either:
>>>a) it was H. erectus (which would make him more intelligent than
>>>previously thought) or b) it was H. sapiens (which would make him
>>>older than previously thought). Since there is no other evidence
>>>elsewhere for either a) or b), and we know about El-Nino caused
>>>fires in Australia, I prefer the latter explanation.
>
>GM>Why no fires prior to 140,000 years ago. The entire pattern of soot in the
>>air around Australia, recorded both in the Lake George Core and in oceanic
>>cores changed significantly from the pattern seen in the earlier rocks.
>
>As I said, this could have been caused by the beginnings of an
>El-Nino cycle. Or it could have been caused by hominids. When there
>is other positive evidence that hominids were in Australia 140,000
>years ago, then I will accept the hominid-lit hypothesis.
The El Nino cycle has been observed in sediments as long ago as 50 million
years ago. El Nino cycle didn't just start in the past few hundred thousand
years.
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm