tarekabdo12
Active Member
We don’t know everything aboutour early ancestors—but we keep learning more! Paleoanthropologists are constantly in the field, excavating new areas, using groundbreaking technology, and continually filling in some of the gaps about our understanding of human evolution.
Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Au. afarensis that may be answered with future discoveries:
- A fossil similar to Au. afarensis and dating to 3.5 million years ago has been found in Chad—did this species extend so far into central Africa?
- We know Au. afarensis were capable of walking upright on two legs, but they would have walked differently than modern humans do today; so, what did their bipedal locomotion look like?
- Did Au. afarensis usually walk upright like modern humans, or did they spend more time climbing trees like other living African apes?
- The species Au. afarensis existed through a period of environmental fluctuation yet showed no adaptations to the changing environment—why? Was it because they were able to migrate to where their usual food sources were located? Or were their food sources somehow unaffected?
- Au. afarensis shows strong sexual dimorphism in that the body sizes between males and females are quite different; however, sexual dimorphism in other primates is usually characterized by size differences in bodies and teeth. Fossil evidence shows that male Au. afarensis individuals had canine teeth comparable in size to those of females. Did male dominance in Au. afarensis individuals not include the need to bear large canine teeth, as it does in many other male primates?
- The teeth and jaw of Au. afarensis are robust enough to chew hard foods, but dental microwear studies show Au. afarensis individuals ate soft foods like plants and fruit instead. While most scientists think that Au. afarensis ate hard, brittle foods during tough times when vegetation was not easily found, further microwear studies show that eating hard foods did not coincide with dry seasons of little vegetation. So how do properties of A. afarensis teeth relateto their diet?
copied from
Australopithecus afarensis
If all this is not known so how can you assert its relation to humans? He also didn't mention that he is not sure that it walked upright like humans. He should have considered that shape of the pelvis, the incapability of its knees to lock like humans' knees and the presence of upper limbs adapted for knuckle walking. Sure, evolutionist can design a weird explanation for everything then claim that creationists are illogical.