Climate Change Spawns Evolution

31 December 2007

 The controversy over the placement of Neanderthals in the line of human evolution has been debated for several years. At first they thought they were an ancestor to modern hominids but they were removed not too long ago. This study is trying to give evidence that they are an ancestor of modern man because "If the Neanderthals were already having trouble how would it have been possible for another population to survive?"

 The empirical evidence given was kind of vague but it appears that at an archaeological site in Saint-Cesaire France there were more reindeer bones in a layer so that indicated the 'cave-dwellers' diet changed from bison to reindeer. From this evidence they determined that there was a rapid climate change that caused the bison and horses to die drop-off and the temperature dropped to near that of the Arctic.

 "Research suggests humans evolved from Neanderthals and links climate change with genetic mutation." First of all, finding reindeer bones does not empirically prove that a climate change occurred. Reindeer can survive in many climates. Second of all, how does a change in climate change your genes? You start off with all the genes you are going to get and just because it gets cold out that does not mean you will magically get new genes to adapt to your environment. If the Neanderthals were faced with life threatening environments, don't you think that instead of staying and dying, they would probably move. They say it takes thousands of years to adapt and make a new kind of animal, but we know from observable science that when climates change, animals move. Every year some animals migrate a thousand miles, why wouldn't the Neanderthals?

1. Found bones.
2. No other proof of climate change.
3. Climate change does not cause new genes to appear.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/climate-changes-evolution/2007/12/31/1198949714882.html