NEXT TALK #20 JUN 2023 ALGIS KULIUKAS - THE WADING HYPOTHESI
Algis Kuliukas - Applying the Scientific Method to the Wading Hypothesis of Hominid Bipedal Origins
Sunday June 11th (9pm Perth West Australian)
Despite a few notable and vocal proponents speaking out in favour of it, the Wading hypothesis of Hominid Bipedal Origins is still largely ignored by the field of biological anthropology.
When Algis returned to academia to try to find out why, over 20 years ago he decided to take on one of the strongest criticisms against the so-called "aquatic ape hypothesis" that the methodology of its proponents did not practice the scientific method.
So, both his Masters thesis at UCL and his PhD at UWA were written in a strictly Popperian framework of trying to test falsifiable predictions.
As Algis will show, all the tests have passed so far - so there is no good reason why this idea still ignored even today - only very bad ones.
PREVIOUS TALK MAY 2023 #19 MARC VERHAEGEN - PLATE TECTONICS
Marc Verhaegen on Plate Tectonics
Sunday April 7th 2023 (3pm Belgian Time; 9pm Perth West Australian)
Marc will discusses the importance of plate tectonics in understanding human evolution.
It will comprise of two main subjects:
1) How is it possible that a self-declared "science" (traditional
paleo-anthropology) made four incredible mistakes:
- bipedalism does not define human ancestry: early-Miocene Hominoidea
were already bipedal waders-climbers in swamp forests,
- we did not evolve as Plio-Pleistocene savanna-dwellers, and even less
as savanna runners (endurance-running nonsense),
- we did not come from Africa (out-of-Africa dogma), at best our
late-Miocene ancestors lived in swamp forests of the Red Sea,
- we did not have australopithecine ancestors, such as Lucy:
australopiths were more closely related to Pan or Gorilla.
2) Hypothesis: Were most or all hominoid splittings caused by plate
tectonics?
- Cercopithecoidea/Hominoidea 30 or 25 Ma: islands and peninsulas of
India approaching southern Asia?
- lesser/great apes c 20 Ma: the Indian subcontinent further underneath
Eurasia?
- pongids/hominids c 15 Ma: the Mesopotamian Seaway Closure?
- Gorilla/Homo-Pan 8 or 7 Ma: the incipient northern-African Rift
formation?
- Pan/Homo 5.33 Ma: the Zanclean mega-flood opening the Red Sea into the
Gulf?