On Wed, 28 Jan 1998 21:36:34 -0600, Glenn Morton wrote:
[...]
>>GM>Nobody said that H. erectus was in Australia 700,000 years ago,
>>least of all I.
>SJ>Nobody said *you* did say it. I said *I* have no problem with
>>Homo erectus being in Australia 700,000 years ago and lighting
>>fires.
GM>I have a problem with H. erectus in Australia 700,000 years ago.
>There is NO evidence of human occupation that early.
Agreed. But there is also no evidence that hominids were sufficiently
advanced to build a three-decker Ark 5.5 million years ago, as you
maintain!
GM>I don't know why you chose that figure. I would suggest that you
>should have problems with him being there 700,000 years ago. By
>140,000 years ago, it is much less certainty about the existence of
>someone in Australia.
You mentioned that Homo erectus was on Flores 700,000 years ago and
that it isn't far from there to Australia:
-----------------------------------------------------------
On Sun, 18 Jan 1998 17:28:29 -0600, Glenn Morton wrote:
[...]
GM....We know that Homo erectus crossed the ocean 700,000 years ago
>and was on the island of Flores, Indonesia. It isn't far from
>there to Australia....
-----------------------------------------------------------
[...]
>>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.
>SJ>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.
SJ>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.
OK. But nevertheless, until there is hard evidence of human
occupation 140 kya, I will prefer a natural explanation. But OTOH I
would have no problem if there were hominids in Australia 140 kya
or even 700 kya.
BTW you just ignore (truncating my message without the usual
elipses), the New Scientist article "The drying of a continent" which
indicates "that large-scale destruction of the Australian vegetation
only occurred 10,000 years ago".
More seriously perhaps, you have also truncated (again without
elipses) my request for an explanation to Reflectorites of why on the
same day you appear to have removed the Jinmium line from your web
page, you were giving us all the impression that you would not remove
it.
God bless,
Steve
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Steve.Jones@health.wa.gov.au
Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ Phone +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
--------------------------------------------------------------------