Jeff's Lunchbreak

This entry is part of a series. For a bit of an introduction and an index of all entries in the series, go here.

This installment covers Chapter 3, The Neanderthal Man, and Chapter 4, The Last Link.

Chapter 3

Let's start off with this quote.

Thus came into existence a whole race of creatures now referred to as Homo neanderthalensis with an age of hundreds of thousands of years! or of but thirty thousand years! as you choose. (McCann 35)

This would only be a problem for strict gradualism, not evolution as we now understand it, or indeed, as some proposed it worked even in McCann's time.

Darwin proposed that all life changes very gradually over time. Many took this too far and assumed that the rate of change was constant, but Darwin himself didn't go that far. In Origin of Species, he actually wrote, "the periods during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured in years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retain the same form." Today, our understanding of this mode of evolution has been formalized into something known as punctuated equilibrium, and it appears that at least in some cases, that is the way history has played out. Even in McCann's time, there were some scientists arguing for saltationism, which was counter to gradualism (though saltationism isn't exactly the same thing as punctuated equilibrium). McCann even discussed 'saltatory theory' on page 384 of this book, so he must have known about it.

Obviously, punctuated equilibrium is not strictly an all or nothing process. Modern humans as we would recognize them have been around for about 100,000 to 200,000 years. We haven't formed into a new species in all that time. That's the stasis part. But there has still been a lot of gradual evolution on a smaller scale. Just look at the differences between different populations alive today, from the tall dark skinned Massai, to the short light skinned inhabitants of the island of Flores.

So, to say that some Neanderthal fossils are hundreds of thousands of years old and other Neanderthal fossils are thirty thousand years old simply implies that Neanderthals as a species existed for that time span. As a matter of fact, the best estimates now are that Neanderthals existed from 130,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago.

Trying to define when Neanderthals existed also illustrates the grey area in classifying species that's to be expected from evolution. As an example, let's imagine a population of short necked animals that gets split into two populations. Let's assume that one population lives in an environment that doesn't change, so the population itself doesn't change and stays the same species. But let's assume that for the second population, the environment changes in such a way that food becomes more scarce, so animals that can reach leaves in trees have an advantage, and natural selection thus favors longer necks. Each individual animal that's born still looks very much like it's parents, and is still very obviously a member of the same species as its parents. But assume that out of all the children born in each generation, those that survive to have children of their own have a neck that's 1 mm longer, on average, than their parents. After 1000 generations, the population would have necks a full meter longer than their great^1000 grandparents. If you compared them to the population that hadn't changed, you'd probably call them a new species. But when, during the course of that thousand generations, could you draw a clear dividing line, separating the old species from the new, saying that one generation of children are the new species, but their parents the old?

I've already explained the error in McCann's line of thinking here the in a previous installment of this review. I'm only including these entries because I thought the emphatic repetition was amusing.

Comparisons soon led to the definite claim that the cranium and bones represented no pathological or accidental monstrosity but a peculiar and thereto unknown type of ancient humanity who was a very close relative to modern man, but "equally close to some pre-existing ape now extinct." In other words he was equally close to something of which nothing existed ! (McCann 35)

Just why the thickness of the bones should be compared with the white man rather than with the African Negro or Australian Bushman is not clear, though the student is forced to admit that it is quite as clear as a comparison with something of which nothing exists! (McCann 35-36)

Professor Osborn himself says, p. 4, American Museum of Natural History guide leaflet series No. 52, May, 1921: "Man is not descended from any known form of ape either living or fossil." But he is descended from something of which nothing exists! (McCann 49)

Moving on...

Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn's 1921 contribution from the pen of the president of the American Museum of Natural History is boldly advertised as "The most important and complete (sic) work on human evolution since 'Darwin's Descent of Man.' It is the first full (sic) and authoritative (sic) presentation of what has been actually discovered (sic) up to the present time in regard to human pre-history. All the known pre-human and human stages of development for the last five hundred thousand years (sic) are described as fully (sic) and fairly (sic) as the material allows." Fully! Complete! Authoritative! Fairly! And this is "science." (McCann 42-43)

In the words of Inigo Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

This is just one example of what I was referring to in the introductory entry of this series, where I said that McCann was inordinately fond of using '(sic)'.

It's also worth keeping in mind McCann's disdain for tentativeness, whenever scientists describe things as possible, likely, probable, or anything less than absolutely certain. Here, when someone expresses more confidence, McCann criticizes them for not practicing good science.

Chapter 4

I already discussed Neanderthal's relation to humans in the previous installment of this review. I'm including this as an example of how similar McCann's writing is to the histrionics of modern day Internet trolls. Were I to see this posted in a comment section somewhere, I'd tell him not to shout.

Yet in "Men of the Old Stone Age," pp. 233-234, he rushes to the support of Professor Boule by quoting the latter as follows: "All these modern so-called Neanderthaloids are nothing but varieties of individuals of Homo sapiens (modern man), remarkable for the accidental exaggeration of certain anatomical traits which are normally developed in all specimens of the Neanderthal man.

The simplest explanation of these accidents in most cases is atavism or reversion. We cannot assert THAT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN INFUSION OF NEANDERTHALOID BLOOD IN THE GROUPS BELONGING TO SPECIES HOMO SAPIENS (modern man) BUT WHAT SEEMS TO BE QUITE CERTAIN IS THAT ANY SUCH INFUSION CAN HAVE BEEN ONLY ACCIDENTAL, FOR THERE IS NO RECENT TYPE WHICH CAN BE CONSIDERED EVEN AS A MODIFIED DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE NEANDERTHALS. (McCann 63)

Also, don't forget that in Chapters 1 and 2, McCann was arguing that Neanderthals were humans. So, it's a bit odd for him to now be arguing so emphatically that they weren't our ancestors.

Stay tuned for Chapter 5, The Gibraltar Man.

Proceed to Chapter 5