SCIENTISTS BRIDGE GAP BETWEEN MAN AND MONKEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18985, 3 February 1930, Page 8

SCIENTISTS BRIDGE GAP BETWEEN MAN AND MONKEY .

TO-DAY’S SIGNED ARTICLE.

Specially written for the “ Star ” by PROFESSOR H. H. SHELDON.

Many of us, as we see a gibbering monkey jumping about the zoo, rather dislike the idea that far back in our family tree we may have had just such creatures as our forefathers. We prefer to think that we come from a line of royal blood. Let peace reign over all! We no longer rely upon evolution, to make the changes which might conceivably produce a man from monkey ancestry; it can be done much quicker and better through mutations from a common ancestor.

The theory of evolution, for which Darwin is responsible, has not, of course, been thrown into the discard. Small changes for the purpose of adaptation to certain environmental conditions are still thought to be due to this evolutionary process. Anthropologists Disagree. But such major deviations as would appear to exist between man and monkey are now looked upon by many as due to mutation, the sudden production of a new form through unknown causes. Of course, not all anthropologists are of this opinion. But many scientists have given up the chase for the “missing link” in favour of the mutation theory. What are these mutations and how do they occur? Researches in genetics have shown that the units of heredity are the chromosomes. In human cells are twenty-four of these. At union twelve are chosen from each or the male and female germ cells. Each one of these chromosomes is responsible for the transmission of many characteristics which are thought to reside in the genes, or collection of molecules which go to make up the chromosomes. Since it is quite improbable that the same chromosomes would be chosen by chance on any two matings, two individuals of the same family should not be expected to resemble each other closely. Twins Illustrate Process. This does happen, however, in the case of identical twins. This is because they are born of a single mating from an egg which divided after fertilisation. They are thus equipped with the same set of chromosomes. As everyone knows, stich individuals *ometimes can be distinguished from each other only with difficulty. This is the orderly method of inheritance. Frequently, for no apparent reason, nature varies far from this procedure. An individual is born which is very different from its parents. Often, more often than not, such individuals may be monctrosities. These are seldom able to cope with their surroundings and perish without producing more of their kind. Such individuals in the form of two-headed calves or four-legged chickens used to appear at the village fair.

Ability Sometimes Transmitted. Occasionally, however, nature produces in this way an individual with fortuitous characteristics. We see this among human beings occasionally when from a family of moderate accomplishment there is produced a

genius. More often than not this ability is not transmitted farther, but the future generations fall back immediately to the old level. Sometimes, however, the ability is transmitted.

It is safe to assume that whenever a mutation occurred that would enable the individual to cope better with his surroundings such individuals would be the more likely to be perpetuated. That several mutations might be produced which would be able to survive is not at all surprising when one considers the thousands of years that have passed in which mutations might have taken place. Links Still Missing. In the past anthropologists have tried to trace the path from monkey to Neanderthal man to the Cro-Mag-nons and to the present modern man. The gaps between these stages have proved impossible to fill, unless perhaps one accepts the evidence which bridges over between the Cro-Magnons and ourselves. That the Neanderthal man should have been the progenitor of the Cro-Magnon race would require that men should have undergone in a few thousand years greater change than has any other animal in the entire history of the world in so far as we know. One of the reasons for this belief is that the Neanderthal man. who had existed for perhaps as much as 100,000 years prior to the appearance of the Cro-Magnons, suddenly disappeared at this time.

This should be no cause for surprise. The Cro-Magnons were more highly endowed than the Neanderthal race. That they should push the latter from their land might even be expected. Assuming that the Cro-Magnons had developed in some other locality, which we have not yet found, and were forced to migrate because of changing conditions on the earth, it is quite to be expected that, arriving in the territory occupied by the Neanderthals, they should take it for their own, much as the white man has taken America from the Indians, a race which differed from ourselves very little as compared Jo the difference which existed between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. There are many ways of explaining this disappearance, without the assumption that man evolved from one type to the other in the space of a few thousand years.

There is a vast gulf between the monkey living in the treetops, with no evidence of family life, and Neanderthal man, who made his home in a cave, understood the use of fires, made many useful implements, and who, according to some evidence, performed ceremonial death rites. There, is a vast difference between Neanderthal man and modern man with all his accomplishments. Perhaps there is some comfort in this theory to those who have fought the evolutionary theory on religious grounds. In the case of the mutation theory we are forced to look upon man as a sudden creation in at least one sense of the word. (Anglo-American N.S.—Copyright.)