A short comment: Think Outside of The Box

You must be wondering, after reading my most recent posts... "What does this have to do with Patagonian Monsters?", I have to admit that the link seems tenuous at most, but it exists.

The series began when I decided to look into the possible genetic connection between archaic hominids and modern humans, in an attempt to explain "giants", "wild men", "ogres", etc. in Patagonia as being extant (or recently extinguished) Neanderthals or Homo erectus.

Now this has to do with the date that modern humans entered America from Asia. What if... they arrived long ago. What if... it was our distant relative Neanderthal or even a more distant one (H. erectus) who did so. Wouldn't their genes appear mixed with ours? What does the genetic bread-crumb trail show?

So I decided to look into ancient sites in America (the older the better), the genetic markers of archaics more prevalent among Amerindians and so on.

But, as far as I can see, the genetics are based on simulations that try to fit the mutations into the predefined box of a late peopling of the Americas.

There are no direct measurement of mutation vs. dated remains.

No. There are simulations with "burns" and 10 million runs that "prove" what they are expected to prove, but no hard data: this skeleton's mtDNA has "x" mutations and is "y" ky old, and that other one, with a similar haplogroup, dated to XX kya BP has "x1" mutations, therefore there are n mutations per ky... no, that sort of science is left for engineers, not for paleo archaeologists.

I looked into the method, how are the ticks of the mtDNA clock calculated, calibrated, defined. And was surprised at the variable rates and at how these are calculated. And in all the papers that I have read, I have seen how the rates are "hand adjusted" to fit the expected date of entry into the Americas.

In my humble opinion, when Science requires an act of faith it ceases to be Science and becomes dogma, a religion.

So, let's try to Think Outside of the Box.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall ©