Lucy Fails Test As Missing Link
By Editorial Staff
Published December 2007
The science of finding and identifying man’s “prehistoric ancestors” runs in a predictable pattern. A press conference is announced, the discovery of an ape-like “ancestor” revealed with an artist’s impression of what the creature looks like, and the discoverer becomes famous, earning money on lecture tours. The actual fossil bones are scanty and the imagination runs wild. Later, when more evidence is found, the “ancestor” turns out to be totally human or totally ape. The Neanderthal man is an example of one find that turns out to be totally human. Once this find is removed as an intermediate form, you can expect another great discovery to save the day. The latest discovery is “Lucy.”
If you are of the impression that there are many intermediate ancestors to man, take notice of the following statement by an expert in the field: “The fossils that decorate our family tree are so scarce that there are still more scientists than specimens. The remarkable fact is that all the physical evidence we have for human evolution can still be placed with room to spare inside a single coffin.“1
This is still an exaggeration since it concedes that various specimens are part of human evolution. Australopithecines, for example, are not considered transitional forms anymore, but a branch of the primate evolutionary tree. True transitional forms are still missing. (“Transitional forms” refer to those creatures which represent intermediate states of development for a supposed ape-like ancestor down to man.)
But what about Lucy? This most recent discovery in Africa is being heralded by many as a true transitional form, typically a replacement for the outmoded australopithecines. Could this be hasty judgment? Let’s examine the evidence. Lucy is a partial fossil skeleton, about the size of a chimpanzee, supposedly female, discovered by paleontologist Dr. Donald Johanson on November 30, 1974, in Hadar, Ethiopia. It is more complete than most fossil finds in that about 40 percent of the bones of the body have been recovered.
The age is “estimated” to be 3.2 million years. The find includes a V-shaped jaw, part of hip and large bones, and other assorted bones with very little skull fragments.2 There were other finds at the same location, other skulls and U-shaped jawbones.
What evidence makes this creature a transitional form? According to Dr. Johanson, she walked upright! Her brain size is still small, ape-like in proportion, and most of the other features are predominantly ape-like. Some say that anatomically it is not different than a modern chimpanzee. The jaw, in particular, is distinct in that it is V-shaped, totally unlike human jaws.
And what evidence supports the idea that this creature walked upright? The angle that the upper leg bone makes with the lower leg bone at the knee. Looking head on, chimpanzee and gorilla legs have an angle of 0 degrees. Humans have an angle of about 9 degrees. If the angle is much greater it gives a “knocked kneed” condition in humans. Lucy and the australophithecines have a larger angle of about 15 degrees.3
Does this make her an upright walker? Present day orangutan and spider monkeys have the same angle as humans yet are extremely adept tree climbers. Some experts argue that the higher angle makes her a better climber.4 This appears to be a knee-jerk reaction rather than clear scientific thinking.
But hold on, the story gets better. Dr. Johanson gave a lecture at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Nov. 20, 1986, on Lucy and why he thinks she is our ancestor. It included the ideas already mentioned and that Lucy’s femur and pelvis were more robust than most chimps and therefore, “could have” walked upright. After the lecture he opened the meeting for questions. The audience of approximately 800 was quiet so some creationists asked questions. Roy Holt asked; “How far away from Lucy did you find the knee?” (The knee bones were actually discovered about a year earlier than the rest of Lucy). Dr. Johanson answered (reluctantly) about 200 feet lower (!) and two to three kilometers away (about 1.5 miles!). Continuing, Holt asked, “Then why are you sure it belonged to Lucy?” Dr. Johanson: “Anatomical similarity.” (Bears and dogs have anatomical similarities).
After the meeting, the creationists talked with Dr. Johanson and continued the questions. Dr. Johanson argued that homology (particularly DNA homology) is good proof for evolution. Tom Willis responded that “similar structures nearly always have similar plans, (like) similar bridges have similar blue prints.” After more discussion along this line, Dr. Johanson gave this amazing reply: “If you don’t believe homology, then you don’t believe evolution, and evolution is a fact!“5
What about Lucy? Just another partial find of some primate, put together to look like a human ancestor? Could the wide separation of Lucy’s bones (200 feet by 1 mile) better point to a catastrophic scenario – such as a world wide flood?
What about Dr. Johanson’s credibility? To his credit, he does talk about the tentative nature of this type of science. But another evolutionary writer says this about the search for humanlike (homonid) bones; “When it comes to finding a new ‘star’ as our animal ancestor, there is no business like bone business.“6
Tom Willis, the creationist who attended the U. of Missouri lecture puts it this way, “By any reasonable standards, Johanson misrepresented the evidence and he did so for money! A businessman who made claims like those to sell his products would be charged with fraud rather than be paid an honorarium.“7 Regardless of the motives involved for finding our evolutionary “ancestor”, we can be sure that when Lucy is acknowledged as an evolutionary dead end, there will be another press conference with another knee-jerk explanation.
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Your comments are welcome!
Thank you for writing this, I am having an extremely hard time with my current ninth grade science teacher who is trying to teach us about how Lucy is a human ancestor. It’s driving me insane, I love your points! The funny thing is, is that for science to need so much evidence, scientists sure have big imaginations.
Posted by Kristen on 11/12/2008 11:23 PM #
I find your argument very interesting. You go on about how scientists use imagination instead of facts, however your refuting evidence is based on looking at angles and testing distances. Even if the knees aren’t hers, they are still in existence. I have to thank you, though, for you’ve provided me with a wonderful counterargument for the paper I’m currently writing.
Posted by Zoe on 12/11/2008 02:59 PM #
Thank you for this article! You have shown me that critical thinking cannot stand up to the power of God’s Word.
Posted by Reckoner on 02/01/2009 03:01 PM #
Can we get a link to the papers and transcripts you quote for this article? I have been trying to find a source for the Donald Johanson quote that Lucy’s knee joint was found several kilometers away, because this would discredit his science and his motive, but have been unable to find any record of this claim in print.
Posted by Foose on 02/05/2009 11:43 AM #
I think Reckoner means critical thinking like this should SUPPORT the power of God’s Word.
Posted by Brenda on 02/27/2009 01:28 AM #
Thanks for the article. What confuses me most about Darwinian theory is the belief that all life evolved through a series of random mutations with no intelligent influence. To use just ONE example, I find it VERY difficult to believe that the ability to fly happened “randomly”. Nature just walked around blindly and stumbled upon a system that solved the problems associated with gravity and aerodynamics? It would be hard enough to conceive that just ONE species would hit this astronomically improbable “random mutation lottery”, but thousands of species, all with their own UNIQUE solutions? Where are all the failures? If the process was completely random, then surely our planet would be covered with the remains of all the species who couldn’t mutate all the way to achieve flight. Bear in mind, this is only ONE example. Factor in the mutation “failures” for all other mutation successes and this would be a planet of bones and fossils. Nope….I don’t buy it. To entirely dismiss off-hand the concept of an intelligent order to the Universe is hypocrisy of the highest degree.
Posted by Gary on 04/30/2009 11:07 AM #
Thank you sooo much my school is doing a play called Dig It and we have to study Lucy so thanks for the help you’re a life saver!!!
Posted by Ericka on 05/06/2009 11:56 AM #
People only censor when they are afraid of contra opinions. Look at Hitler, Stalin etc.
Are you afraid of the contra arguments. And you call this critical thinking?
Posted by ldopas on 05/20/2009 09:28 AM #
Come on, you’d take seriously an article that claims Lucy is a recent discovery and then actually states a date over 30 years earlier as its discovery date?
Honestly, more mistakes then facts in one article.
Disappointing.
Posted by James on 05/26/2009 04:57 PM #
I think scientists are at least heading in the right direction by investigating occurrences millions of years ago, trying to trace a logical explanation to our origin.
Most of the comments here seem to think that magic and superpowers are more plausible. They base this upon an incomplete set of books written by relatively unknown men a few thousand years ago.
Please give up the nonsense. Religious people don’t have to bury their heads in the sand. Come back to reality people!
Posted by David on 07/15/2009 09:53 PM #
Lucy was not just a “scanty” find but the most complete skeletal remains of our distant ancestors. There is no need for a missing link, and if you have a problem connecting the dots in our long evolutionary heritage, then that’s your problem. Transitional forms have been found (horses, whales, elephants, and humans) This is an old argument that is fallacious today. Of course, she walked upright. Study a little anthropology in hip girgles, magnom in the skull, etc. You would not know a missing link if it hit you in the head!
Posted by Clinton Inman on 08/15/2009 07:58 PM #
As a student of anthropology, I can guarantee you that this article is fraught with blatant errors and circular reasoning. As a Catholic, I have to ask why people find it so comforting to pretend that we spontaneously appeared on this planet. We are a part of the earth, not above it. Hiding from that truth is all this article accomplishes. The creationist myth gives us an excuse to leave our responsibilities to the earth as a species, in blind search of the infathomable concepts of grace and divinity. Creationists abandon their humility when they claim that we are separate from nature. Separation implies that we are above nature. When we forget our place on earth, we are sacrificing the abundant truths of nature for a constructed, prepackaged, manufactured set of ideals and mores (religion). Learn to accept the fact that we are a part of it. Find God for yourself, don’t blindly follow your institutions. And the fact that the vast majority of these responses are made by kids in grade school is terrifying. You have to understand that these arguments are based on man’s interpretation of God’s will, not on God’s will itself. We cannot understand God. The church uses the concept of God to repress change, as it has throughout history. This article is clear evidence—they have fed you factual errors and unfounded logic to make you resist change. Get out there and learn, go outside of your pre-constructed boundaries, and discover your individual beauty as a part of the natural world, and you will find spirituality.
In 1987, creationist Tom Willis accused Donald Johanson of fraud, claiming that the skeleton known as “Lucy” consisted of bones that had been found at two sites about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) apart. Willis had actually confused two separate finds which belong to the same species. (This was in spite of the fact that a best-selling book (Johanson and Edey 1981) has photos of both fossils: AL 129-1 is a right knee, while Lucy has a right femur and a left tibia.) This was a spectacular error which could hardly have been made by anyone who had done the most elementary research, but that didn’t stop many other creationists from picking up the claim and repeating it. For a full history of this claim, read the talk.origins knee-joint FAQ file (Lippard 1997).
Do yourselves and the rest of humanity of favor and actually research topics before coming to a conclusion. You may be shocked to find out the indoctrination you went through as an impressionable youth left you with ideas which are tenuous at best. Creationism is a cancer to the human mind and is constantly proven to be on the wrong side of history and always will be.
Posted by Truth on 01/28/2010 10:24 AM #
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This is great info thanks. I am in Critical Thinking class and they are talking about human remains 2 million years older than Lucy found in Ethiopia. Do you have anything on this that will help me? Please. Thank you. :)
Posted by Pinky on 11/03/2008 03:51 PM #