Translated the 02/17/06

Paleontology

Paléontologie

Paleontologists are the "guardians of time", the masters of anthropogenesis. (1 )

It was a Frenchman, the naturalist Georges Buffon ( 1707-1788 ) who is the true father of palaeontology. He was, in effect, the first to publish evolutionist ideas, encouraging by that the study of fossils.

It was another Frenchman, the naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ( 1744-1829 ), the father of biology, who was the first to clearly present a qualified theory transformism.

But it was Charles Darwin ( 1809-1882 ), that monumental heretic of his time, who really gave birth to this new science, with the publication of his now legendary work edited in 1859, "On the origin of the species by way of natural selection".

These theories were violently contested by their contemporaries, but ended up by imposing themselves over that of creationism ( 2 ) and spontaneous generation of species ( 3 ).

At the same time, it was only after the Second World War that scientists went looking for those fossils which would attest of our origins.

In order to find fossils, you have to choose a place where, millions of years ago, , one of our ancestors died.

Then you have to find the sediments which covered his bones and protected them through all time till they come to light.

Thus, we need a whole series of accidental factors and incredible coincidences...
Uncountable specimens will therefore never be known...

The geological site where we have found the greatest number of the oldest hominid fossils, is the rift valley.( 4 )

Thus the first hominids may have been everywhere on the planet, but it is in East Africa that we have found the oldest traces...
Wherever traces found elsewhere seem to be ignored, this itself allows the dogma to be refined by new discoveries in the simple direction taken by Darwinian theory, in which the god Chance retains his dominant position.

Following page ( evolution )

Evolution Abel Initial Bipedism Impossible hominid fossils The imprints of impossible hominids The Burdigalians of Serre de Brigoule The extinction of the Dinosaurs The impossible Dinosaurs The impossible fossil objects The geological time scale

The Impossible Discoveries

Contents The "news" The Heretics Archaeology Life Sciences PSI Phenomena UFO Earth Sciences Astronomy Physics Maths Myths and Legends Cryptozoology Sindonology

Notes :

Anthropogenesis : study of the origins and evolution of Man.

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Creationism or Fixism : Theory according to which species are immutable, the fruit of divine creation in the view of Aristotle ( 4th Cent. BC. ), in line with the biblical myth of genesis for the religious.

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Spontaneous Generation or abiogenisis : Theory according to which certain living beings emerge spontaneously from mineral or organic substances in decomposition.
This theory was held unchallenged until 1660 for certain animals and wasn't totally abandoned until 1869 by the discovery of micro-organisms.

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The Rift Valley is a gigantic fault which crosses the African continent on its Eastern, from North to South. It was carved millions of years ago and since then, movements in the earth's surface have brought to light fossils.

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Translated by Michael CAWLEY