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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2009 : 04:56:43
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We all know that a couple of teeth, molars, that were claimed to be primate (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii, also called Nebraska Man.) were actually from an extinct, ancient peccary – a relatively smallish pig indigenous today to the south-western US and Mexico. The teeth in question were from Pliocene deposits and figured to be about 6,000,000 years old – which makes it predate Australopithecus by some 2+ millions or so of years! That's all pretty straightforward and easily understood by everyone including the creationist fantasy-dwellers who try to use it as proof that evolution is a fraud foisted off by conniving scientists trying to scam up yet more grant money. It is something of a mystery to me that they still do, as their blather on the subject has the simplest of explanations and is therefore so easy to refute, it's no fun.
What actually happened was this:
A rancher and geologist named Harold Cook came across the teeth in 1917. In 1922, they became the basis for Henry Fairfield Osborne, a paleontologist and president of the American Museum of Natural History, to leap to the erroneous conclusion that they came from a primate, as peccary molars and human's have a superficial resemblance, especially if they are worn. All of this inspired one Amedee Forestier, in collaboration with scientist Grafton Eliot Smith, to create the illustration below.
Needless to say, this rather brutish portrait put Nebraska man on the popular map, if not necessarily the scientific one. Even Osborn was less than impressed with it, calling it, more accurately than he knew at the time:
| ]"such a drawing or 'reconstruction' would doubtless be only a figment of the imagination of no scientific value, and undoubtedly inaccurate." (quoted in Wolf and Mellett 1985) |
And thus, the “Ape of the Western World” was born. This optimistic state of affairs was to have a very short life-span.
As always, one good fossil deserves another and further examination of the tooth site, in 1925, turned up what the late Paul Harvey would call: “The rest of the story.”
The pig came out of the poke in the form of fragments of the skeleton. It turned out to be Prosthennops, an extinct peccary. In 1927 the journal Science retracted it's previous identification as a primate.
So there we have it; a too-quick identification, typical media foolishness, and then decent science. In short, no hoax.
Today, most big-name creationists such as Hank Morris and Ham the Hoot don't use Nebraska Man as a talking point, as it is too easily laughed from the discussion. But it still pops up now & again, as we have seen in here, even recently. I think it shows a certain lack of critical thinking ability, not so much for the topic, but for not researching it prior to bringing it up.
Nebraska Man actually had less than a 10 year tenure and even then, like Piltdown, was looked upon as questionable by most of the paleontologists of the day.
Nebraska Man should not be considered an embarrassment to science. The scientists involved were mistaken, and somewhat incautious, but not dishonest. The whole episode was actually an excellent example of the scientific process working at its best. Given a problematic identification, scientists investigated further, found data which falsified their earlier ideas, and promptly abandoned them (a marked contrast to the creationist approach).
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Reference
Reference
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 17:34:26 [Permalink]
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That sums up the Nebraska Man story quite nicely, thank you.
It strikes me that evern a well-read amateur would not make the same kind of mistake today. The knowledge that the only primates native to the Western Hemisphere are the New World monkeys and Homo Sap is just too universally known. Any evidence that might at first glance seem to refute this would be looked upon very cautiously by anyone trying to do science.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2009 : 00:16:28 [Permalink]
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I agree, excellent, but it is rather like comparing a book report to a thesis, isn't it? I kept it as short as I could while Switek went into heavy detail.
And that's what most, although not all, Scattershots are about; simply to arouse the curiosity enough that the reader might make the effort to inquire further. I can't say for sure, but this looks like the first time it's worked. Thanks!
I strongly recommend opening Dave's link to get the whole thing. It's a great read.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2009 : 00:23:58 [Permalink]
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I'm naturally an advocate of having short, sweet, and simple articles and posts for (and sometimes by) those of us like Filthy myself, who are lacking a university education. There are, I think, a lot of blue-collar types who generally "get" and follow science, but don't have a deep and broad understanding of it. I think it's great to point such people in the right direction, as Fil has.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Scattershots: Nebraska Man; the hoax that wasn't.
