A mostly crushed fossil skull has apparently “thrown the origins of humankind into question.” Uh huh. Is it just me or do some fields of science draw broad conclusions based on small amounts of evidence such as the fossil record. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t hold lack of evidence to support fundie creation myths or othe crackpot theories. It seems that a few bone fragments can rock previous therories so much because reality is far more complex than what can truly be deduced from the fragments of evidence available. Maybe I’m just in a cranky mood today but the furor over the newly found skull is like dark matter: we can’t see all the stuff we think we should see therefore we invent some unseeable stuff that fills in the gap.
I do hold with the concept of evolution. I’m Christian but Genesis isn’t exactly a blueprint for the universe. God works in his own ways.
I hope Jois comes across this thread (and I may e-mail him about it). He has substantially more professional level data and access to it than we do.
Quickly, and not knowing more than your OP describes, here’s the gist of the situation:
Fossil hominids farther back than Homo erectus are fairly sparsely represented. There’s adequate specimen data to draw some conclusions, but nothing like the sorts of extensive fossil arrays of, say, Mesozoic sea creatures.
Typically, paleoanthropologists are rather fond of constructing elaborate family trees on relatively skimpy information. This is not to say they are wrong – just that they theorize linkages based on evidence that might be considered inadequate.
Newbie reporters on the science beat (and usually it’s something to which the newbie is relegated) have not learned balance in journalism. That Fred’s Pretzels is hiring 50 new employees is good news for the local economy, but it’s not going to make the radical shift in the employment and spending picture that the kid on the weekend local desk wants to picture it as.
The same sort of thing happens with new scientific discoveries. The paradigm-changing discovery happens maybe once every decade or two – the Heterodontosaur with a probable preserved four-chambered heart, which is a few miles from me, is perhaps the latest in dinosaur studies, and that’s over ten years ago. This skull probably confirms or corrects some lineage and is nowhere near the earth-shaking occurrence the press report suggests it is.