Out-of-Africa versus Multiregional hypothesis.

[Tauromachos]

Out of Spain(Castilia) hypothesis

[lei.talk]

the practice of science is not a neat/clean procedure.

scientists have bias/prejudices
and wish to enjoy a life-long paid career as a scientist.

the fossil record
is filled with mercenary/paradigm-influenced choices
that are revealed in their diaries, journals
and even published autobiographies.

there are many books detailing this.
they are not school-books.

one evening, after dinner, the girl-child asked
(wearing a calculatedly innocent expression)

how many times the saber-toothed lions had evolved.

my son replied that over millions of years
it had occurred at least five times.

and the elephant-like creatures with prehensile snouts?

with the same answer
my son elaborated that the same environmental niche
produced the same life-form eventually.

so evolution is always happening,
single-cell organisms are evolving right now? some where?

he agreed with her.

his mother, her girl-friend and i were waiting for it.

how wide was the variation of phenotypes between those saber-tooths
or those elephants?

as he pondered,
she asked if it was any greater
than the range of human phenotypes currently on the planet?

my son smiled appreciatively and said "No".

now that the hook was set deep,
she reeled him in: if all levels of evolution are happening all the time, then...

by now my son was up to her speed
and said
it was because all of the fossil-hunters
had been raised christian
which taught all of mankind sprang from the loins of one man - adam -

and that un-examined paradigm became the evolutionary tree of man.

but she was a step ahead of him:
is it not circular to calculate a mutation-rate for genes
based on the time-line of fossils
whose theoretical sequence is a transplanted religious paradigm

and then claim the mutation-rate proves the genealogy of man?

my son could only agree.