Truth in Science
| Ancient ape-like fossil described in Nature |
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A detailed description and analysis of an ape-like fossil is reported in today's issue of Nature, the leading science journal. This represents a spectacular scientific discovery, and many years of painstaking and skilled scientific work. Whilst such an addition to human knowledge is to be welcomed, some media coverage of this remarkable find has unfortunately been very tenuously based on the scientists’ findings. For example, The Times carries the headline: "Meet the relatives: Little Lucy, the half-ape half-human". The main news article claims "Her anatomical features lie squarely in between those of humans and other apes…[her] leg and foot bones show her to have been already adept at walking upright at the age of 3, showing conclusively that A. afarensis was an accomplished biped." The Telegraph claims “From the waist down, Dikika girl looked like us.” The Sun carries the headline “She looks like you-oo-oo” and pictures a reconstruction not only of the fossilised creature itself before its untimely death, but also of its “Mum and Dad”. Anyone reading the scientists’ reports in Nature in detail finds a rather different story. Even the sex of the fossil is open to question: it is a “presumed female” based on the shape of its teeth. The fossil’s anatomical features do not “lie squarely in between those of humans and other apes.” The morphology, especially of the upper body is more similar to Chimpanzees and Gorillas than Humans. The brain size is roughly a quarter of what would be expected for a human of similar age. The lower parts of the fossil are apparently more human-like than the other parts. These were mainly found separately to the upper body, and as the journal notes, "the pelvis, the lowest part of the back and parts of the limbs — are still missing". Furthermore, the only foot which has been found is still largely encased in sandstone, and requires months of painstaking work before its description is possible. At present we only have a limited ability to assess the human-likeness of the creature’s lower half. Though not clear in some news reports, the question of whether the ape walked on two feet or swung through trees is still debated. A commentary in Nature notes: “There remains a great deal of controversy regarding the posture and locomotion of A. afarensis. Most researchers accept that it could stand upright and walk on two feet, but whether it could climb up and move through trees is still disputed.” A concern of Truth in Science is that excellent scientific research is presented by mainstream media with far too much speculation and claimed certainty. Sometimes this occurs even in news articles within scientific journals. For anyone who does not have time to go back and read the original research articles, it is difficult to separate fact from speculation, resulting in false impressions of what is and is not proven by scientific evidence. |
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The presence or absence of a creative super-intelligence is unequivocally a scientific question... Richard Dawkins (2006) |
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