Human evolution: savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, March 10, 2025, 20:07 (4 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Sapiens succeeded Erectus, et al. That is all we know from the fossil record. You seem lost as the savannah theory dies. We don't know how erectus or the other early forms originated. We simply accept they 'evolved' just as the Neanderthal's and Denisovans did. Sapiens evolved, a simple concept. "We find hominin and homo evidence everywhere, at times the same as savannah findings".

I agree with all of this, except for my “seeming lost”. The fact that we don’t know how species originate is precisely why we produce theories.

DAVID: Same timing means the savannah evidence is like all the other evidence, and therefore cannot be separated out as a special consideration.

dhw: “Same timing” as what? We know that sapiens spread far and wide, and we know that he co-existed with other homos, and we agree that he evolved. But we don’t know when or why the first sapiens “evolved”. Your theory used to be that your God did a dabble, operating on a group of pre-sapiens to give them new legs and pelvises, and then they descended from the trees. On Saturday you wrote: “We have no real evidence that savannah living drove human evolution now that we find hominins everywhere. This finding does not negate my God designer theory.” Perhaps you’d better repeat your exact theory, since you now seem to favour a natural process of evolution for all the different hominins and homos.

I think God created us. No natural need for our big brain has ever been demonstrated. Monkeys and great apes have been here relatively unchanged for six million years +/-. Then 'Why us'? Yes, the God designed hominin and homo forms whose attributes were formed in part by their climates. 'Same timing' of homos/sapiens fossils everywhere demotes the savannah theory to one proposal from limited evidence, which turns out to be a part of the whole. With pre-human and human activity everywhere we cannot know where sapiens first evolved. With my God theory, it could have occurred in several places relatively simultaneously.