Ape Evolution in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes

A new Hollywood film turns apes like this into superapes. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Evolution has given rise to many Hollywood stories, which is not surprising as the Darwinian worldview is full of just-so stories that have a tendency to change and occasionally contradict each other.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes is no exception. The film never attempts to question evolution but considers it to be fact. It shows how a chimpanzee called Caesar (Andy Serkis) learns to read and write, and becomes increasingly like a human being.




In reality, the gap between humans and chimpanzees is enormous. The often quoted 1 per cent genetic difference is a myth as the real difference is much bigger, perhaps 23 per cent.

But Hollywood seldom lets facts spoil an intriguing story.

New Darwinian Just So Story: Dim Lights Gave Us Big Eyes

Evolution research is not known for its critical approach but for its just so stories.


Joel Kontinen

Have you ever wondered why some people have bigger eyes than others? According to a recent study conducted at the University of Oxford, the answer in not blowing in the wind but the puzzle can be solved by eye evolution.

Eiluned Pearce and Robin Dunbar measured the skulls of 73 individuals who had lived at different latitudes. According to New Scientist, they found out that ”the overall skull volume and the volume of the eye socket increased with latitude”.

They published their research in the journal Biology Letters.

Some other researches are not convinced that Pearce and Dunbar interpreted their data correctly. Chris Kirk, an anthropologist at the University of Texas in Austin, says that one would have to measure the eyes before reaching the conclusion the Oxford researchers did.

This kind of adaptation does not have anything to do with Darwinian evolution since humans (and animals) have been created with the ability to adapt to their environments. This is for instance seen in skin colour. In the animal kingdom, long-furred dogs live near the poles and short-furred dogs nearer the Equator.

Darwinian evolution needs just so -stories because it lacks real evidence.


Source:

O’Luanaigh, Cian. 2011. Dim polar light drove humans to evolve larger eyes. New Scientist 2823 (27 July).