Ciência: Artigo publicado na Revista Science põe por terra teorias evolucionistas

Artigos Científicos

Teoria da Evolução em Xeque

 "Darwin não estava totalmente errado, mas é pouco provável que estivesse certo" (Revista Science)

Estudo científico comprova evolução paralela entre homens e macacos e pode colocar em xeque a Teoria da Evolução

Um estudo publicado na edição de sexta-feira, 2 de outubro, da conceituada revista norte-americana “Science”, pode colocar por terra a Teoria da Evolução, apresentada por Charles Darwin, no século 19. Segundo Darwin, a espécie humana teria derivado de uma evolução de primatas. O estudo, apresentado pela equipe de pesquisadores coordenada por Tim White, do Centro de Pesquisa Sobre Evolução Humana da Universidade da Califórnia em Berkeley, nos Estados Unidos, identifica uma evolução paralela de macacos e humanos, baseada na pesquisa feita sobre o fóssil de uma fêmea da espécie Ardipithecus ramidus, batizada pela comunidade científica de “Ardi” e que tem 4,4 milhões de anos.

O esqueleto de Ardi foi encontrado na Etiópia, no início dos anos 90. Depois de cerca de 15 anos de pesquisa, em que foram analisados o crânio, dentes, pélvis, mãos, pés e outros ossos do fóssil, a equipe de White identificou características que não correspondem nem a humanos, nem aos macacos. Segundo informações divulgadas pelas agências de notícias AP e AFP, Tim White esclareceu que “a mão de Ardi é, inclusive, mais primitiva que a de um chimpanzé”.

Ao apresentar sua Teoria da Evolução, o próprio Charles Darwin disse que “a única maneira de saber como é esse ancestral, é o encontrando”, referindo-se à espécie que seria o “elo perdido” entre primatas e humanos, e que comprovaria sua tese evolucionista. Desde então, cientistas buscam avidamente encontrar qualquer vestígio arqueológico que possa comprovar a teoria darwiniana. A revelação do estudo apresentado por Tim White não chega a comprovar que Darwin estava errado, mas pode demonstrar que é pouco provável que ele estivesse certo.

Science: Multimedia

Do Original (em inglês)

Ancient Skeleton May Rewrite Earliest Chapter of Human Evolution

By Ann Gibbons
ScienceNOW Daily News
1 October 2009

Researchers have unveiled the oldest known skeleton of a putative human ancestor--and it is full of surprises. Although the creature, named Ardipithecus ramidus, had a brain and body the size of a chimpanzee, it did not knuckle-walk or swing through the trees like an ape. Instead, "Ardi" walked upright, with a big, stiff foot and short, wide pelvis, researchers report in Science. "We thought Lucy was the find of the century," says paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill of Yale University, referring to the famous 3.2-million-year-old skeleton that revolutionized thinking about human origins. "But in retrospect, it was not."

Researchers have long argued about whether our early ancestors passed through a great-ape stage in which they looked like protochimpanzees, with short backs; arms adapted for swinging through the trees; and a pelvis and limbs adapted for knuckle-walking (Science, 21 November 1969, p. 953). This "troglodytian," or chimpanzee, model for early human behavior (named for the common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes) suggests that our ancestors lost many of the key adaptations still found in chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, such as daggerlike canines and knuckle-walking, which those apes were thought to have inherited from a common ancestor.

Evidence has been hard to come by, however, because there are almost no fossils of early chimpanzees and gorillas. Until now, the oldest known skeleton of a human ancestor was Lucy, who proved in one stroke that our ancestors walked upright before they evolved big brains. But at 3.2 million years old, she was too recent and already too much like a human to reveal much about her primitive origins. As a result, researchers have wondered since her discovery in 1974, what came before her--what did the early members of the human family look like?

Now, that question is being answered in detail for the first time. A multinational team discovered the first parts of the Ar. ramidus skeleton in 1994 in Aramis, Ethiopia. At 4.4 million years old, Ardi is not the oldest fossil proposed as an early hominin, or member of the human family, but it is by far the most complete--including most of the skull and jaw bones, as well as the extremely rare pelvis, hands, and feet. These parts reveal that Ardi had an intermediate form of upright walking, a hallmark of hominins, according to the authors of 11 papers that describe Ardi and at least 35 other individuals of her species. But Ardi still must have spent a lot of time in the trees, the team reports, because she had an opposable big toe. That means she was probably grasping branches and climbing carefully to reach food, to sleep in nests, and to escape predators.

Most researchers, who have waited 15 years for the publication of this description and analysis, agree that Ardi is indeed an early hominin. "This is an extraordinarily impressive work of reconstruction and description, well worth waiting for," says paleoanthropologist David Pilbeam of Harvard University. But he takes issue with the idea that the common ancestor of chimps and humans didn't share many traits with the African apes. "I find it hard to believe that the numerous similarities of chimps and gorillas evolved convergently," he says. Regardless, the one thing all scientists can agree on is that the new papers provide a wealth of data for the first time to frame the issues for years. "It would have been very boring if it had looked half-chimp," says paleoanthropologist Alan Walker of Pennsylvania State University, University Park.