DNA Study Poses Problem For Evolutionist

by Presley Reeves, Apologist with “Reasons to Believe”

Theories held by paleontologists and anthropologists that link Neanderthals as the evolutionary progenitors of modern humans have been dealt a harsh blow. The University of Stockholm and the University of Glasgow have recently concluded studies that show no genetic link between humans and Neanderthals.

Glasgow and Stockholm research teams independently confirmed the results of their DNA studies on a 29,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton (an infant), found in the easternmost part of the known Neanderthal range. These results confirm those of a 1997 study by the University of Munich on Neanderthal DNA. The earlier DNA study, conducted on a 40,000 -to 100,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton found in West Germany, also found no genetic link between humans and Neanderthal. Dr. Fazale Rana, of Reasons to Believe, stated in the organization’s latest newsletter Connections; “Given that tests were performed on different specimens from the extremes of the Neanderthal range and separated in time by more than 10,000 years...these results are extraordinarily convincing.”

The first setback to evolutionists who believe humans and Neanderthals have an evolutionary link came in 1992. Anatomical differences between Neanderthals and humans were discovered then and began severing evolutionary links between humans and Neanderthals. Evolutionists are now faced with even dimmer prospects of proving that Homo antecessor, a bipedal primate dated at 800,000 years ago, is an evolutionary intermediate. Scientists know Homo antecessor, only by a single specimen, a partial jaw bone. The results of these studies coupled with the lack of evolutionary intermediates recorded in the fossil record are proving to be great challenges to evolutionary models.

The Wichita Chronicle - September - 2000