Transitions Site of the Week
This is the first in a semi-regular series higlighting informative and interesting sites related to evolution. This week I have picked The Museum of Science website Human Evolution: Interpreting Evidence. The site has several interesting features including: fossil fact sheets with pictures that can be printed, an interactive comparison of three different views on hominin phylogenetic relationships, advice on how to teach human evolution and educator resources. From Human Evolution: Interpreting Evidence:
There are three major issues we will address:
· With any scientific discovery come facts and interpretations. It is important to distinguish what is a fact and what is an interpretation and how evidence plays a role in each case. It is important to recognize that scientific interpretations are very often supported by a wealth of evidence, and are not just wild guesses.
Fact: K. Kimeu discovered the individual who is represented by skull KNM-WT 15000 in East Africa in 1984.
Interpretation: This skull is of an 8-year old Homo erectus who lived 1.6 million years ago.· Science is not a belief system; it is rooted in doubt. Science embraces and thrives on skepticism, challenge, and debate. We present on this web site three different interpretations of the human family tree (or phylogeny). These are fiercely debated in the scientific community. We suggest that this scrutiny is a healthy part of science and should not be avoided in the classroom. What is important to teach students is why scientists disagree (or agree) about particular interpretations of the human fossil record.
· Science is dynamic and incorporates new discoveries into what is already known about the world. Every year, new hominid discoveries complicate our understanding of human evolution and force scientists to readdress hypotheses about our ancestry. Keep visiting this site to see how new discoveries alter our family tree.
