A recent study published in the science journal Nature documented the analysis of some teeth found in England and Italy. “In tests conducted at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in England, the baby teeth from Italy were dated at 43,000 to 45,000 years old. Other analysis showed the teeth to be those of a modern human, not a Neanderthal, as previously thought when the fossil was unearthed in 1964.” Similar results and dates were found for the Italian teeth as well making them the “oldest known modern human fossils from northwestern Europe”. These displace the previous record-holder, a Romanian fossil declared to be “reliably dated” at 37-42,000 years old although it was found without any stone tools or artifacts to assist in the dating. Dr. Thomas Higham, the Oxford paper’s author, admitted: “the earlier dates for these fossils meant that early humans must have coexisted with Neanderthals in this part of the world, something which a number of researchers have doubted.” The most revealing part of the article was this frank confession: “Determining the age for any samples more than 40,000 years old was no sure thing. At that age, levels of remaining radiocarbon are low, and contamination can be a serious problem.” The Oxford group arrived at their dates by “obtain[ing] radiocarbon dates of animal bones found close to the jawbone in Kents Cavern and us[ing] a statistical modeling method to calculate the age of the human fossil.”
So what have we learned from this handful of teeth?
1. Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted despite long-held evolutionary assumptions to the contrary. So, once again, what “all real scientists KNOW” (i.e. that Neanderthals evolved into humans) has been disproven by actual evidence, much to the chagrin of evolutionists. Neanderthals were not “missing links” of human evolution, but rather were contemporaries of modern humans. Numerous other findings in recent years has proven that Neanderthals were truly modern humans with distinguishing features falling well within range of modern genetic variation—NOT a separate species of subhuman (as evolutionists have insisted for decades).
2. Dating methods are riddled with problems and contradictions. One fossil is “reliably dated” even without any accompanying tools or artifacts. Then, scientists admit weaknesses in radiocarbon dating methods because so little radiocarbon is left after “tens of thousands” of years. Therefore, accompanying evidence (like stone tools and artifacts) must be present to support these alleged dates. Circular reasoning, anyone? Then, scientists turned to “radiocarbon dates [which were just described in the article as “no sure thing”—RL] of animal bones found close to the jawbone…and used a statistical modeling method [i.e. a computer guess—RL] to calculate the age of the human fossil.” What a mess!
3. Even if these findings are true and accurate (which is a mighty BIG “if”), all it proves is that modern humans keep appearing further and further back in the evolutionary timeline. The necessary time for the assumed evolution between apes and humans keeps shrinking. One day that window of evolutionary miracles will disappear and we will find that modern humans existed all the way back to the beginning in the garden of Eden. Just like the Bible has said all along. A great deal of information (and misinformation) from just a handful of teeth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/science/fossil-teeth-put-humans-in-europe-earlier-than-thought.html?ref=todayspaper