Malcolm Bowden and OH 9

Here is what creationist Malcolm Bowden has to say about OH 9:

'Chellean Man.' Site LLK (Leakey, 1961) (Fig. 51)
Fragments of a large skull were found in 1961. This was not unlike Pithecanthropus [Java Man] but bore considerable resemblance to the Steinheim (Neanderthal) skull. Here again, the skull and the 'Chellean' implements found with it are surprisingly advanced for the early Villafranchian stratum in which they were discovered.
Bolas stones
Reviewing all these fossil apes, ....

According to Bowden, OH 9 is similar to both Java Man, which he says is an ape, and the human Steinheim skull. (Although Bowden calls Steinheim a Neandertal, most scientists consider it an archaic H. sapiens, possibly ancestral to Neandertals.) The start of the second paragraph implies OH 9 is an ape (although that may be just careless phrasing), but the phrase "surprisingly advanced" implies that it is human. Bowden's own description makes this sound like a perfect transitional fossil.

May 22, 1998: In email, Bowden suggested that it might be an ape, but that it was hard to tell, given that he had "no great expertise in such identifications".

References

Bowden M.: Ape-men: fact or fallacy? Bromley,Kent:Sovereign, 1981. Ed. 2

Leakey L.S.B.: New finds at Olduvai gorge. Nature 189:649-650, 1961. (announcement of the discovery of OH 7 and OH 9 fossils)

Creationist arguments about Homo erectus

This page is part of the Fossil Hominids FAQ at the talk.origins Archive.