The Sad Case of Sediba

A collection of a few fossils called Australopithecus sediba is being paraded as the oldest-known direct ancestor of Homo erectus. The skeletons’ remains, however, have clear ape-like features, which even some evolution experts acknowledge. That hasn’t stopped other evolutionists from touting sediba’s hand. Though the “human-like” thumb is proportionally much longer than ours, they claim it could handle tools better than modern apes.

Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, a science writer for Answers in Genesis, recently saw a replica of sediba’s skull in London’s Natural History Museum. She declared that its “nasal bones are flat, as seen in apes, but don’t project as in humans. The lower half of the face projects as in other apes, rather than being flattened as with humans. The cranial capacity is also small.”

To help the skull appear human-like, a researcher employed a paleo-artist to undertake a forensic reconstruction. The artist produced an “ape-boy” named Karabo (“the answer”) with a wrinkled, bulbous nose and smiling lips. But fossils are not found with a nose or lips (smiling or otherwise).1

Although creationists do not have access to the actual remains, many think sediba is a member of the australopithecine kind, a group of extinct apes. Even while waiting for further research, though, we can be confident that humans and apes are unrelated (in an evolutionary sense) and always have been. Genesis teaches that God created humans in His image. Although humans and apes share some similarities, the Bible makes it clear that there’s no bridge between the two—besides a common Creator.