Human evolution; our feet differ from apes. (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, March 02, 2020, 11:49 (1517 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: In your theory the pre-Lucy knew she had the need to move quickly so she designed her feet in advance, or did she stumble around and jump to the trees when necessary. We know she had long arms and ape-like shoulders.

dhw: You continue to misunderstand the process I am suggesting. Yes, pre-Lucy knew she had to run quickly. No, she did not design her feet in advance. Nobody knows how feet originated, and nobody knows how non-stiff feet evolved into stiff feet, but the theory I am proposing is that as pre-Lucy and her species tried to run faster, the cell communities that form the feet and legs responded by stiffening the feet. […] Pre-Lucy may well have jumped into the trees when necessary. In that respect, she was a transitional form and provides direct evidence for common descent.

DAVID: I still accept common descent, but I think God ran the process and prepared for future problems, so I do not misunderstand your position.

She did not “design her feet in advance”. You constantly misrepresent my theory by saying it involves foreseeing the future. It doesn’t. Organisms/cell communities respond to the needs of the present.

DAVID: Once on the ground Lucy had to be speedy or she would not have survived the predators who were faster. She had to be designed for survival, not develop it as she was on the ground.

No doubt many of her contemporaries did not survive, and she herself is believed to have been a “young adult” when she died, so she didn’t survive long either!

DAVID: Further your theory ignores the gaps in the fossil record with its assumption the cell committees adapt, that would imply a gradual change for which there is no record. The gaps tell us that the cell committees would have bean able to see the necessary future designs that were needed. Really!

How often must I emphasize that they do NOT foresee anything! The gaps tell us that once there were no transverse arches, and later there were transverse arches. My comment was:
dhw: It’s a pity we don’t have a few thousand pre-Lucys to see how stiff all her ancestors’ feet were. And then a few thousand more fossils to see how stiff the feet were between all the generations of all the hominins and early homos prior to Sapiens. Without them, of course, it’s impossible to say how fast or slow the adaptation was.

DAVID: Agreed, but she survived and my God took care of the needed designs. We have to work with the only fossils we have.

That does not mean we can assume that there was not a gradual development and that your God must have jumped in at a specific moment to pop in a transverse arch.

DAVID: It still looks like H. sapiens ended with most unusual unexpected characteristics.

dhw: Unexpected by whom? There are loads of species that ended with most unusual characteristics. Why is the human foot more unusual than the elephant’s trunk or the camel’s hump? But yes, humans are remarkable animals, and yes, we can only work with the fossils we have. These suggest a stage by stage development of certain organs, supporting the case for common descent.

See "David's Theory of Evolution" for continuation...