Quote: Charles Oxnard


The following is from an article in Impact No. 282:

Should Evolution Be Immune from Critical Analysis in the Science Classroom

by David Buckna and Denis Laidlaw

[...]

21. Evolutionist Dr. Charles Oxnard (Professor of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia) completed the most sophisticated computer analysis of australopithecine fossils ever undertaken, and concluded that they have nothing to do with the ancestry of man whatsoever and are simply an extinct form of ape (see Oxnard's The Order of Man, Yale University Press, 1984). How have paleoanthropologists responded to his conclusions?

It has been reported that Dr. Oxnard found the "sophisticated computer analysis" quote quite amusing. It was just a multivariate analysis, something that is taught (for instance) to every Psychology student.

Dr. Oxnard's results were based on measurements of a small number of bones, most of them fragmentary. Nevertheless, he did conclude that australopithecines probably were bipedal (walked upright), unlike modern apes.

Dr. Oxnard did his study in the 1970's, before the discovery of "Lucy" and many other related fossils. His study is therefore out of date, since we have more evidence now. Only a more modern quote would be worthy of debate.


Last modified: 7 April 1997

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