"The commission finds that Prof. Protsch has forged and
manipulated scientific facts over the past 30 years."
Such are the words of a German university panel regarding
Reiner Protsch von Zieten, a flamboyant anthropology professor
whose work had been cited as evidence Neanderthal man once lived
in Northern Europe.
According the panel, Protsch lied about the age of human skulls,
giving them dates tens of thousands of years old, when in reality
they were much younger. How much younger? Protsch
dated the female "Bischof-Speyer" skeleton at 21,300
years, when it was really only 3,300 years old. Another
skull, found near Paderborn, Germany, dated by Protsch to be
27,400 and believed to be the oldest human remain ever found in
the region, was later discovered to be from a human who died in
1750.
"We had the skull cut open and it still smelt," said
Herne anthropological museum's director. "We are naturally
very disappointed." They should be. They own the
skull.
Stone Age specialist and head of human origins at London's Natural
History Museum, Chris Stringer, added, "What was considered a
major piece of evidence showing that the Neanderthals once lived
in northern Europe has fallen by the wayside. We are having
to rewrite prehistory."
"Anthropology now has to revise its picture of modern man
between 40,000 and 10,000 B.C.," said Thomas Terberger, an
archaeologist at the University of Greifswald.
What's amazing about the whole situation is how one man could
mislead so many, and the fiasco strongly suggests that
anthropology isn't as carefully double-checked as some would lead
us to believe. Thirty years of lies is a long time.
Frankfurt University's president, Rudolf Steinberg, apologized for
the university's failure to unearth the problem sooner. In
his own words (and startlingly telling words), "A lot of
people looked the other way."
Thylacine Cloning Project Dropped
by Jonathan
Drake
S: abc.net.au
(2-15-05)
The
Australian Museum says it's over ... they won't be trying to bring
back the Tasmanian Tiger. Simply put, the quality of the DNA
is too poor to work with, according to director Frank Howarth and
assistant director of science and collections Dr. Les Christidis.
"The museum's future involvement in the thylacine project has
been re-evaluated," the museum said in a statement to ABC
Science Online. "In fact, further investigation has
now revealed that the thylacine DNA is far too degraded to even
construct an DNA library. Given this the project cannot
proceed to the next stage."
News that a project was underway to clone the thylacine from a
preserved pup made headlines the world over back in 1999.
The museum's then director, Professor Mike Archer, still hopes
that it might be possible to bring the thylacine back to life,
however.
"I and other colleagues remain interested in the project and
I don't think that it will simply die because the museum can't
proceed. The technology to make it happen is improving all
the time. And I believe science has a duty to continue to
assemble the building blocks that will be needed to do it."
The last known living Tasmanian Tiger died in captivity in
1936. Scattered sightings have lead some to speculate that
they are still alive in the wild, but conclusive evidence has not
yet been brought forth.
"Extinct" Pine Hits Scotland
by
Josef
Long
S: Scotsman.com (1-2-05)
It's quickly becoming a tourist
attraction, a rare "prehistoric" tree that was thought
to have been extinct for millions of years, only to be found still
alive in Australia. Now, it is to be the centerpiece of a
newly refurbished attraction in Scotland.
It's called the Wollemi pine, and it once was prevalent on earth a
long time ago, only to be destroyed along with the dinosaurs (and
many other animals). Well, thought to be destroyed.
Specimens grown from seed have been air-freighted to the Royal
Botanic Garden in Edinburgh as part of a global effort to ensure
the species’ long-term survival, and they're making a comeback
quickly.
According to Stephen Blackmore, Regius Keeper of the Botanic
Garden, "This is such an amazing tree. We are very
excited about getting it because we have the best collection of
conifers in the world and this will add greatly to what we already
have."
Interestingly enough, the Wollemi pine differs little from its
fossil ancestors, and literally stands as yet another tribute to
the absence of macro-evolutionary change over millions of years.
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