This is a topic I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Though it can be said that many scientists who investigate topics receive public outcry to a return of racial segregationist ideology in academia to an unfair extent. It would be odd however to apply the same towards Richard Fuerle, and not in any ironic way. He basically peddled the Carleton Coon Multiregional Theory that not even Multi-regionalists would buy, but a quick Google search will lead you to those who would (not the most unbiased group).

The intent of this article is to show how a decent chunk of Fuerle’s arguments are indeed outdated and doesn’t jive with current evidence. While not a review of the whole book, this post will demonstrate enough basic facts that should convince you to discourage his arguments.

Credentials-

First page (the hardest in my opinion) and none in biology. For reference, I encourage commenters to cite from the book if they take issue with my criticisms, as I’m only paraphrasing from this point forward simply because of this.

Bone density-

Quick and simple (and somewhat setting a pattern), this is a trait that RR has talked about in the past with others still getting it wrong. Rather than a reduced or adaptive specialization, bone density in modern European came as a result of sedentary behavior from the Neolithic.

Sedentary living among Sub Saharans is far more recent, even with crops going back several millennia B.C.E intensification wasn’t that common until plantations were used during the slave trade. Shifting Cultivation, though variable, was the norm. I’ll touch upon this in a future article on the African Neolithic.

Dentition:

One of his other pitfall were the implications pf Shovel Teeth in Modern Populations.

1. The high rate of such is indicative of modern phylogenic ancestry, supporting the case of Asians.
2.  The trait in Asians derives from Peking Man.

Both are pretty much refuted by archaic and modern variants being different. And contra to the expectations of his estimates of human divergences being millions of years old, Europeans are closer to Modern Africans than Neanderthals in dentition. This also refutes assertion on the primitive nature of Africans compared to other humans in the case of phylogenics. On the particular features, it’s another story.

In this case there’s no need to look any further than the works of Joel Irish, who I’m willing to bet is unparalleled in this topic in modern research.

Retention of primitive features was something that went back to African migrants into Eurasia, Homo Sapiens both recent and past having long retained archaic traits.

We recently examined whether or not a universal criterion

for dental modernity could be defined (Bailey and Hublin

2013). Like cranial morphology, dental morphology shows a

marked range of variation; so much that multiple geographic

dental patterns (e.g., Mongoloid, Proto-Sundadont, Indodont,

Sub-Saharan African, Afridont, Caucasoid, Eurodont, Sun-

dadont, Sinodont) have been identified in recent humans

(Hanihara 1969,1992; Mayhall et al. 1982; Turner 1990;

Hawkey 1998; Irish 1998,2013; Scott et al. 2013). Our

analysis confirmed that, while some populations retain higher

frequencies of ancestral (i.e., primitive) dental traits [e.g.,

Dryopithecus molar, moderate incisor shoveling (Irish 1997)]

and others show higher frequencies of recently evolved (i.e.,

derived) dental traits [e.g., double shoveling, four-cusped

lower molars (Turner 1983; Irish and Guatelli-Steinberg

2003)], all recent humans show some combination of both

primitive and derived traits (Bailey and Hublin 2013).

Africans tend to have higher frequencies in retained features, but in the context of recent Eurasian variants, this is to be expected and Irish have actually used this data to support an African dispersal.

Assuming that phenetic expression approximates genetic variation, previous dental morphological analyses of Sub-Saharan Africans by the author show they are unique among the world’s modern populations. Numerically-derived affinities, using the multivariate Mean Measure of Divergence statistic, revealed significant differences between the Sub-Saharan folk and samples from North Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and the New World, Australia/Tasmania, and Melanesia. Sub-Saharan Africans are characterized by a collection of unique, mass-additive crown and root traits relative to these other world groups. Recent work found that the most ubiquitous of these traits are also present in dentitions of earlier hominids, as well as extinct and extant non-human primates; other ancestral dental features are also common in these forms. The present investigation is primarily concerned with this latter finding. Qualitative and quantitative comparative analyses of Plio-Pleistocene through recent samples suggest that, of all modern populations, Sub-Saharan Africans are the least derived dentally from an ancestral hominid state; this conclusion, together with data on intra- and inter-population variability and divergence, may help provide new evidence in the search for modern human origins.

The same was done by his colleague  who first posited an West Asian origin as Fuerle did (undoubtedly on much firmer grounds). Has recently integrated this into modern OOA.

To date, the earliest modern human fossils found outside of Africa are dated to around 90,000 to 120,000 years ago at the Levantine sites of Skhul and Qafzeh. A maxilla and associated dentition recently discovered at Misliya Cave, Israel, was dated to 177,000 to 194,000 years ago, suggesting that members of the Homo sapiens clade left Africa earlier than previously thought. This finding changes our view on modern human dispersal and is consistent with recent genetic studies, which have posited the possibility of an earlier dispersal of Homo sapiens around 220,000 years ago. The Misliya maxilla is associated with full-fledged Levallois technology in the Levant, suggesting that the emergence of this technology is linked to the appearance of Homo sapiens in the region, as has been documented in Africa.

This then smoothly glides into the next topic.

Craniofacial data-

Thus we also find that the basis of modern diversification is recent, as in below 50k in age.

On the appearance of Modern East Asian and Native Americans Traits,

Our results show strong morphological affinities
among the early series irrespective of geographical origin,
which together with the matrix analyses results
favor the scenario of a late morphological differentiation
of modern humans. We conclude that the geographic
differentiation of modern human morphology is a late
phenomenon that occurred after the initial settlement
of the Americas.

On the features of earlier Paleoamericans.

During the last two decades, the idea held by some
late 19th and early 20th century scholars (e.g., Lacerda
and Peixoto, 1876; Rivet, 1908) that early American populations
presented a distinct morphological pattern from
the one observed among recent Native Americans, has
been largely corroborated. Studies assessing the morphological
affinities of early American crania have shown
that crania dating to over seven thousand years BP generally
show a distinct morphology from that observed in
later populations. This observation is better supported in
South America, where larger samples of early specimens
are available: population samples from central Brazil
(Lagoa Santa; Neves and Hubbe, 2005; Neves et al.,
2007a) and Colombia (Bogota´ Savannah; Neves et al.,
2007b) as well as in isolated specimens from Southeast
Brazil (Capelinha; Neves et al., 2005), Northeast Brazil
(Toca dos Coqueiros; Hubbe et al., 2007) and Southern
Chile (Palli Aike; Neves et al., 1999). Distinct cranial
morphology has also been observed in early skulls from
Meso-America (Mexico; Gonzalez-Jose´ et al., 2005) and
North America (Jantz and Owsley, 2001; Powell, 2005).
This evidence has recently demonstrated that the
observed high levels of morphological diversity within
the Americas cannot simply be attributed to bias resulting
from the small available samples of early crania, as
was previously suggested (Van Vark et al., 2003).
Recent Native American cranial morphology varies
around a central tendency characterized by short and
wide neurocrania, high and retracted faces, and high
orbits and nasal apertures. In contrast, the early South and

Meso-American (hereafter Paleoamerican) crania
tend to vary around a completely different morphology:
long and narrow crania, low and projecting faces, and
low orbits and nasal apertures (Neves and Hubbe, 2005).
These differences are not subtle, being of roughly the
same magnitude as the difference observed between
recent Australian aborigines and recent East Asians
(Neves and Hubbe, 2005; Neves et al., 2007a,b; but see
Gonza´lez-Jose´ et al., 2008 for a different opinion). When
assessed within the comparative framework of worldwide
craniometric human variation, Paleoamerican groups
show morphological affinities with some Australo-Melanesian
and African samples, while Amerindian groups

Earlier waves of Native Americans were replaced by later waves of migrants from Asia with latter specializations.

The same can be demonstrated in Africa.

For the second half of the Late Pleistocene and the period pre-

ceding the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (i.e., MIS 3), the only two

sites with well preserved and securely dated human remains are

Nazlet Khater 2 (38 ±6 Ky, Egypt; Crevecoeur, 2008) and Hofmeyr

(36.2 ±3.3 Ky, South Africa; Grine et al., 2007). These fossils

represent additional evidence for Late Pleistocene phenotypic

variability of African sub-groups. The Hofmeyr specimen exhibits

the greatest overall similarities to early modern human specimens

from Europe rather than to Holocene San populations from the

same region (Grine et al., 2007). Moreover, the Nazlet Khater 2

specimen preserves archaic features on the cranium and the

mandible more comparable to those of Late Middle Pleistocene and

early Late Pleistocene fossils than to chronologically closer recent

African populations (Crevecoeur, 2012). These specimens represent

aspects of modern human phenotypic variation not found in cur-

rent populations. This situation seems to have lasted until the

beginning of the Holocene in the African fossil record, not only in

the northeastern part of the continent (Crevecoeur et al., 2009) but

also in the west central (Iwo Eleru, Nigeria, Harvati et al., 2011;

Stojanowski, 2014) and eastern regions (Lukenya Hill, Kenya,

Tryon et al., 2015). During the Holocene, an increased homogeni-

zation of cranio-morphological features is documented, particu-

larly within sub-Saharan Africa, with its peak during and after the

Bantu expansion from 6 Ky ago (Ribot, 2011).

Without Ambiguity, the EUP like Hofmeyr skull was found to be archaic relative to recent SSA.

Although the supraorbital torus is comparable in thickness to that in UP crania, its continuous nature represents a more archaic morphology ( 26 ). In this regard, Hofmeyr is more primitive than later sub-Saharan LSA and North African UP specimens (such as Lukenya Hill and Wadi Kubbaniya), even though they may have a somewhat thicker medial supraorbital eminence. Despite its glabellar prominence and capacious maxillary sinuses, Hofmeyr exhibits only incipient frontal sinus development, a condition that is uncommon among European UP crania ( 27 ). The mandibular ramus has a well-developed gonial angle, and the slender coronoid process is equivalent in height to the condyle. The mandibular (sigmoid) notch is deep and symmetrical, and its crest intersects the lateral third of the condyle. The anterior margin of the ramus is damaged, but it is clear that there was no retro- molar gap. The Hofmeyr molars are large. The bucco- lingual diameter of M 2 exceeds recent African and Eurasian UP sample means by more than 2 SD (table S3). Radiographs reveal cynodont molars, although pulp chamber height is likely to have been affected by the deposition of secondary dentine in these heavily worn teeth. Thus, Hofmeyr is seemingly primitive in comparison to recent African crania in a number of features, including a prominent glabella; moderately thick, continuous supraorbital tori; a tall, flat, and straight malar; a broad frontal process of the maxilla; and comparatively large molar crowns.

One of unique traits to Modern Eurasians is a measurable increase in Cranial Index.

Craniometric data have been collected from published and unpublished reports of numerous authors on 961 male and 439 female crania from various sites in Subsaharan Africa spanning the last 100 ka. All data available in the literature, irrespective of their “racial” affinities, were used to cover the prehistoric and early historic times (up to 400 a BP). Samples covering the last 400 years do not include European colonists and consist of skeletons exavated at archeological sites, collected by early European travelers and derived from anatomical collections. Cranial capacity, depending on the mode of its calculation, has decreased by 95–165 cm3 among males and by 74–106 cm3 among females between the Late Stone Age (30-2 ka BP) and modern times (last 200 years). Values of the cranial index did not show any trend over time and their averages remained in the dolichocephalic category. The decrease in cranial capacity in Subsaharan Africa is similar to that previously found in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa, but, unlike the latter, it is not accompanied by brachycephalization. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

It’s worth noting in even Fuerle’s data, despite emphasizing this trait in a singular black example, Caucasians have a larger browridge by comparison. Black were described as small in comparison in this trait. Likewise, the data indicates that the skulls were generally smoother and rounder with more receded Cheekbones.

On a comprehensive look on how these difference, this paper seems sufficient.

Population variation.

Morphological characteristics of the orbit that are most variable among the
African, Asian, and European samples include orbital volume (obv), orbital depth (obd), basion-superior orbit (bso), and orbital breadth (obb), and are also those that contribute most to group separation in the multivariate analyses. Interorbital breadth (dkb), biorbital Samples Asian European African 20.9960 31.2139 Asian 15.4776 Samples Asian European African 1.80745 3.19353 Asian 3.70921
68 breadth (ekb), and basion-orbitale (bio) were not found to be statistically different among these samples, however the low significance value for basion-orbitale in a one-way analysis of variance (p = 0.055) indicates that some degree of divergence exists among them. Additionally, while a significance test was not carried out for “shape” of the orbital margins, it is clear that general differences exist among groups. The most notable difference is between the Asian and African samples, in which the former possesses high and narrow orbits (a more rounded shape), and the latter is characterized by lower and wider orbital margins (a more rectangular shape).

Hominin trends

This current investigation reveals that the orbital
margins vary in association with these long-term evolutionary changes, becoming
vertically shorter, horizontally elongated, more frontated, and retracted relative to basion, with a greater degree of reduction in the inferior orbital margins.

In otherwords, the Rectangular Shape of “Negroids” are a retention, but towards a baseline Sapiens trend.

The wide rectangular shape of the orbital margins resulting from a shift in relative
size of orbital height and orbital breadth is highly characteristic of anatomically modern humans from the Upper Paleolithic in Europe and Asia (chapter 5), and extant groups from Sub-Saharan Africa (chapter 3). Following the Upper Paleolithic however, the trend toward superoinferiorly shorter and more elongated orbits associated with a grade shift in craniofacial form began to reverse, and the orbital margins become taller and narrower, taking on a more rounded shape. This more recent trend has also been documented among East Asian groups dating to the Holocene (Brown & Maeda, 2004; Wu et al. 2007), and is investigated as part of a larger examination of orbital change through the European Upper Paleolithic in chapter 5 of this thesis.

On the specifics, Eurasians.

In looking at size and shape of the orbital margins it can be seen that orbital breadth does not vary in relation to cranial shape, but does decrease as the upper facial index increases, with the same being true of biorbital breadth. In contrast, orbital height is positively correlated with both shape features, which one might expect particularly in relation to the upper facial index, in which a vertical increase in facial height and decrease in facial width would be assumed to affect in a similar way these same dimensions of the orbit. However, Brown & Maeda (2004) found that throughout the Neolithic in China, orbital height increases substantially even while facial height is reduced in that region.
In nearly every case, orbital variables are more highly correlated with shape of the
face than with shape of the head, which is understandable given their inclusion in the facial framework. However, the relationship between basion-orbitale and basion-superior orbit is negatively correlated with both cranial and facial shape variables and to approximately the same degree. This is of particular interest given that the upper facial index comprises two variables that indicate the relationship between height and width of the face in the coronal plane, though measures of basion-orbitale and basion-superior orbit lie in the parasagittal plane. Orbital depth also decreases in association with increased facial height and decreased facial breadth, but is not statistically related to change in cranial shape. This too is surprising given that orbital depth might be expected to decrease more as a result of anterior-posterior shortening of the skull rather than in relation to a narrowing and elongation of the face.  104 Although the direction and magnitude of the relationship between orbital morphology and craniofacial shape largely mimics observed changes in orbital features during the last 30,000 years in Western Europe (section 5.4 above), orbital size deviates slightly from this pattern. Both orbital volume and the geometric mean of orbital height, breadth, and depth remained relatively unchanged since the Upper Paleolithic, however both show a statistically significant negative relationship to the upper facial index, meaning that as the face becomes taller and narrower, space within the orbits is diminished.
Brown and Maeda (2004) show that among skulls of Australian Aborigines and
Tohoku Japanese, which represent changing craniofacial form since the end of the
Pleistocene, orbital volume is highly correlated with supraorbital breadth, lower facial prognathism, and shape of the orbital margins. Among these crania a broader
supraorbital region, more projecting facial skeleton and lower orbital index (more
rectangular shape) are associated with a larger orbital volume. Change in these features, including a strong trend toward higher and narrower orbits, is considered to reflect a decrease in orbital volume that occurred throughout the Holocene in China (Brown & Maeda, 2004).

Africans’ Prognathism and inter Orbital breath can be accounted for here. Pg 13. Explains an association between interorbital breadth and prognathism. Within South Africans, however, wide breadth compensates for a low prognathic profile on page 229-230. In Africans, compare to African Americans, it is more variable.  On Page 216 it notes how the role for robust craniofacial features do not correlate with browridge size. Uncorrelated features can be explained by geography for instance.

Fossils-

Richard Fuerle noted the particularly archaic nature of the 100-300k Kabwe/Broken Hill skull in contrast to Modern Humans in Ethiopia. He, in totality with modern “retentions”, asserted that this proved that African pecularities were long standing and postulated that the Middle East was the actual home of human origins.

Some problems with this logic are similar findings In Europe and Asia. Despite being contemporary with Neanderthals by context, the morphology of the Ceprano skull is closer to the LCA with Sapiens.

By contrast, Rhodesiensis existed alongside others that show more marked Sapiens differientation like the South African Florisbad mention here.

Others may mention the Iwo Eleru finding. That isn’t unique to Africa either, as the Red Deer Cave people will show. On their origins.

Our analysis suggests two plausible explanations for the morphology sampled at Longlin Cave and Maludong. First, it may represent a late-surviving archaic population, perhaps paralleling the situation seen in North Africa as indicated by remains from Dar-es-Soltane and Temara, and maybe also in southern China at Zhirendong. Alternatively, East Asia may have been colonised during multiple waves during the Pleistocene, with the Longlin-Maludong morphology possibly reflecting deep population substructure in Africa prior to modern humans dispersing into Eurasia.

More specifically.

The number of Late Pleistocene hominin species and the timing of their extinction are issues receiving renewed attention following genomic evidence for interbreeding between the ancestors of some living humans and archaic taxa. Yet, major gaps in the fossil record and uncertainties surrounding the age of key fossils have meant that these questions remain poorly understood. Here we describe and compare a highly unusual femur from Late Pleistocene sediments at Maludong (Yunnan), Southwest China, recovered along with cranial remains that exhibit a mixture of anatomically modern human and archaic traits. Our studies show that the Maludong femur has affinities to archaic hominins, especially Lower Pleistocene femora. However, the scarcity of later Middle and Late Pleistocene archaic remains in East Asia makes an assessment of systematically relevant character states difficult, warranting caution in assigning the specimen to a species at this time. The Maludong fossil probably samples an archaic population that survived until around 14,000 years ago in the biogeographically complex region of Southwest China.

Our results indicate that the Hexian teeth are metrically and morphologically primitive and overlap with H. ergaster and East Asian Early and mid-Middle Pleistocene hominins in their large dimensions and occlusal complexities. However, the Hexian teeth differ from H. ergaster in features such as conspicuous vertical grooves on the labial/buccal surfaces of the central incisor and the upper premolar, the crown outline shapes of upper and lower molars and the numbers, shapes, and divergences of the roots. Despite their close geological ages, the Hexian teeth are also more primitive than Zhoukoudian specimens, and resemble Sangiran Early Pleistocene teeth. In addition, no typical Neanderthal features have been identified in the Hexian sample. Our study highlights the metrical and morphological primitive status of the Hexian sample in comparison to contemporaneous or even earlier populations of Asia. Based on this finding, we suggest that the primitive-derived gradients of the Asian hominins cannot be satisfactorily fitted along a chronological sequence, suggesting complex evolutionary scenarios with the coexistence and/or survival of different lineages in Eurasia. Hexian could represent the persistence in time of a H. erectus group that would have retained primitive features that were lost in other Asian populations such as Zhoukoudian or Panxian Dadong. Our study expands the metrical and morphological variations known for the East Asian hominins before the mid-Middle Pleistocene and warns about the possibility that the Asian hominin variability may have been taxonomically oversimplified.

Mandibular and dental features indicate that the Hexian mandible and teeth differ from northern Chinese H. erectus and European Middle Pleistocene hominins, but show some affinities with the Early Pleistocene specimens from Africa (Homo ergaster) and Java (H. erectus), as well as the Middle-Late Pleistocene mandible from Penghu, Taiwan. Compared to contemporaneous continental Asian hominin populations, the Hexian fossils may represent the survival of a primitive hominin, with more primitive morphologies than other contemporaneous or some chronologically older Asian hominin specimens.

 Our dental study reveals a mosaic of primitive and derived dental features for the Xujiayao hominins that can be summarized as follows: i) they are different from archaic and recent modern humans, ii) they present some features that are common but not exclusive to the Neanderthal lineage, and iii) they retain some primitive conformations classically found in East Asian Early and Middle Pleistocene hominins despite their young geological age.

Middle to Late Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia has remained controversial regarding the extent of morphological continuity through archaic humans and to modern humans. Newly found ∼300,000-y-old human remains from Hualongdong (HLD), China, including a largely complete skull (HLD 6), share East Asian Middle Pleistocene (MPl) human traits of a low vault with a frontal keel (but no parietal sagittal keel or angular torus), a low and wide nasal aperture, a pronounced supraorbital torus (especially medially), a nonlevel nasal floor, and small or absent third molars. It lacks a malar incisure but has a large superior medial pterygoid tubercle. HLD 6 also exhibits a relatively flat superior face, a more vertical mandibular symphysis, a pronounced mental trigone, and simple occlusal morphology, foreshadowing modern human morphology. The HLD human fossils thus variably resemble other later MPl East Asian remains, but add to the overall variation in the sample. Their configurations, with those of other Middle and early Late Pleistocene East Asian remains, support archaic human regional continuity and provide a background to the subsequent archaic-to-modern human transition in the region.

There is nonetheless substantial variation across the available

East Asian sample within and across these chronological groups

and especially in terms of individual traits and their combinations

within specimens (SI Appendix, Figs. S16 and S17 and Tables S10,

S12, and S13). However, similar variation within regions and

within site samples is evident elsewhere during the MPl (as reflected

in the persistent absence of taxonomic consensus regarding MPl

humans; see refs. 19, 23, 41, and 42), and it need not imply more

than normal variation among these fluctuating forager populations.

The growing human fossil sample from mainland East Asia,

enhanced by the HLD remains, therefore provides evidence of

continuity through later archaic humans, albeit with some degree

of variation within chronological groups. As such, the sample

follows the same pattern as the accumulating fossil evidence for

MPl (variably into the Late Pleistocene) morphological conti-

nuity within regional archaic human groups in Europe (e.g., ref.

43), Northwest Africa (e.g., ref. 44), and insular Southeast Asia

(e.g., refs. 21 and 24), as well as into early modern humans in

East Africa (e.g., ref. 45). Several divergent peripheral samples

[Denisova, Dinaledi, and Liang Bua (46–48)] do not follow this

pattern, but they are best seen as interesting human evolutionary

experiments (49) and not representative of Middle to Late Pleisto-

cene human evolution. It is the core continental regions that provide

the overall pattern of human evolution during this time period and

form the background for the emergence of modern humans.

Although there is considerable interregional diversity across these

Old World subcontinental samples, primarily in details of craniofa-

cial morphology, these fossil samples exhibit similar trends in primary

biological aspects (e.g., encephalization, craniofacial gracilization).

Moreover, all of these regional groups of Middle to Late Pleistocene

human remains reinforce that the dominant pattern through archaic

humans [and variably into early modern humans through continuity

or admixture (16, 50, 51)] was one of regional population consistency

combined with global chronological trends.

Fuerle has recently attempted to build a case for the existence
of multiple biological species of humans from a molecular perspective.
Fuerle used comparative genetic distance data involving various
DNA types obtained from a variety of sources for a range of
biological species and subspecies [54]. The results of his review
are summarized in the following table. Additional data involving
non-mtDNA based estimates of the genetic distance between the
gorilla species and the chimpanzees and bonobos have been included
for comparison.
Table 4 would seem to suggest that the Sub-Saharan African
(Bantu) and Australopapuan (Aborigine) genetic difference as measured
by SNP’s is greater than the genetic distance between both
the two species of gorilla (Gorilla gorilla and Gorilla beringei), and
greater than the distance between the common chimpanzee and
the bonobo as measured by mtDNA.
On the basis of this Fuerle suggests that there are only two
consistent courses of action to take regarding re-classification –
splitting or lumping. Either H. sapiens could be split into two species
– Homo africanus which would encompass modern African
populations and Homo eurasianensis which would encompass Eurasian
populations; making the genus Homo consistent in his view,
species-wise with respect to other genera in which the differences
between species are expressed in terms of much smaller genetic
distances; or alternatively the genetic variability within the human
species could be used to typologically define the absolute limits of
what constitutes a vertebrate species, which could then be employed
as a taxonomic baseline in the classification of other species.
This would mean lumping the two gorilla species and the
chimpanzee and the bonobo as single species.

FST reflects the relative amount of total genetic differentiation
between populations, however different measures of genetic distance
involving mtDNA and autosomal loci are simply inappropriate for the purposes of inter-specific comparison as the different
genes involved will have been subject to markedly different selection
pressures and are therefore not likely to have diverged at the
same time [62]. To illustrate this point, this author listed alternative
estimates of the distance between the gorilla species and the
common chimpanzee and bonobo, based on various nuclear loci
and autosomal DNA. The much higher numbers reflect the extreme
variation that can be expected when different genes are considered.
Fuerle’s presentation of the data is also problematic for another
reason, namely he makes no mention of the current
debates surrounding gorilla and chimpanzee/bonobo taxonomy;
as new research on these taxa regularly generates novel and in
some cases wildly variable estimates of genetic distance between
these primates, and there is even some debate over whether the
eastern and western gorillas are separate species [60].
Curnoe and Thorne have estimated that periods of around two
million years were required for the production of sufficient genetic
distances to represent speciation within the human ancestral lineage
[56]. This indicates that the genetic distances between the
races are too small to warrant differentiation at the level of biological
species, as the evolution of racial variation within H. sapiens
started to occur only 60,000 years ago, when the ancestors of modern
humans first left Africa.

1100 words

I have written a few response articles to some of what Thompson has written over the past few years. He is most ridiculous when he begins to talk about nutrition (see my response to one of his articles on diet: Is Diet An IQ Test?). Now, in a review of Angela Saini’s (2019) new book Superior: The Return of Race Science, titled Superior Ideology, Thompson, yet again, makes more ridiculous assertions—this time about bone density as an adaptation. (I don’t care about what he says about race; though I should note that the debate will be settled with philosophy, not biology. Nor do I care about whatever else he says, I’m only concerned with his awful take on anatomy and physiology.)

The intellectually curious would ask: are there other adaptations which are not superficial? How about bone density?

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/82/2/429/2823249
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1863580/

Just-so story incoming.

I’m very familiar with these two papers. Let’s look at them both in turn.

The first study is Racial Differences in Bone Density between Young Adult Black and White Subjects Persist after Adjustment for Anthropometric, Lifestyle, and Biochemical Differences (Ettinger et al, 1997). Now, I did reference this article in my own piece on racial differences in drowning, though only to drive home the point that there are racial differences in bone density. Thompson is outright using this article as “evidence” that it is an adaptation.

In any case, Ettinger et al (1997) state that greater bone density in blacks may be due to differences in calciotropic hormones—hormones that play a major role in bone growth and bone remodeling. When compared with whites “black persons have lower urinary calcium excretion, higher 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1, 25D) level, and lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D) and osteocalcin level (9)” (Ettinger et al, 1997). They also state that bone density can be affected by calcium intake, physical activity, They also state that testosterone (an androgen) may account for racial and gender differences in bone density, writing “Two studies have demonstrated statistically significantly higher serum testosterone level in young adult black men (22) and women (23).”

Oh, wow. What are refs [22] and [23]? [22] is one of my favorites—Ross et al (1986) (read my response). To be brief, the main problems with Ross et al is that assay times were all over the place, along with it being a small convenience sample of 50 blacks and 50 whites. LabTests Online writes that it is preferred to assay in the morning while in a fasted state. In Ross et al, the assay times were between 10 am and 3 pm, which was a “convenient time” for the students. Along with the fact that the sample was small, this study should not be taken seriously regarding racial differences in testosterone, and, thus, racial differences in bone density.

Now what about [23]? This is another favorite of mine—Henderson et al (1988; of which Ross was a part of). Mazur (2016) shows that black women do not have higher levels of testosterone than white women. Furthermore, this is just like Ellis’ (2017) claims that there is a difference in prenatal androgen exposure, but that claim, too, fails. In any case, testosterone can’t explain differences in bone density between races.

Ettinger et al (1997) showed that blacks had higher levels of bone density than whites in all of the sites they looked at. (Though they also used skin-fold testing, which is notoroiously bad at measuring body composition in blacks; see Vickery, Cureton, and Collins, 1988). However, Ettinger et al (1997) did not claim, nor did they imply that bone density is an adaptation.

Now, getting to the second citation, Hochberg (2007). Hochberg (2007) is a review of differences in bone mineral density (BMD) between blacks and whites. Unfortunately, there is no evidence in this paper, either, that BMD is an adaptation. Hochberg (2007) gives numerous reasons why blacks would have stronger skeletons than whites, and neither is that they are an “adaptation”:

Higher bone strength in blacks could be due to several factors including development of a stronger skeleton during childhood and adolescence, slower loss of bone during adulthood due to reduced rates of bone turnover and greater ability to replace lost bone due to better bone formation. Bell and colleagues reported that black children had higher bone mass than white children and that this difference persisted into young adulthood, at least in men (23,24). Development of a stronger skeleton during childhood and adolescence is dependent on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, including nutrition and lifestyle factors (25).

[…]

Genetic, nutritional, lifestyle and hormonal factors may contribute to differences in rates of bone turnover during adulthood

There are numerous papers in the literature that show that blacks have higher BMD than whites and that there are racial differences in this variable. However, the papers that Thompson has cited are not evidence. That trait T exists and there is a difference in trait T between G1 and G2 does not license the claim that the difference in trait T between G1 and G2 is “genetic.”

Thompson then writes:

Equally, how about differences in glomerular function, a measure of kidney health, for which the scores are adjusted for those of Black African descent, to account for their higher muscle mass? Muscle mass and bone density are not superficial characteristics. In conflicts it would be a considerable advantage to have strong warriors, favouring “hard survival”.

Here’s the just-so story.

Race adjustment for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is not always needed (Zanocco et al, 2012). Renal function is measured by GFR. Renal function is an indication of the kidney’s functioning. Racial differences in kidney function exist, even in cases where the patients do not have CKD (chronic kidney disease) (Peralta et al, 2011). Black Americans also constitute 35 percent of all patients in America receiving kidney dialysis, despite being only 13 percent of the US population. Blacks do generate higher levels of creatinine compared to whites, and this is due to higher average muscle mass when compared with whites.

There are differences in BMD and muscle mass between blacks and whites which is established by young adulthood (Popp et al, 2017), but the claim that there trait T is an adaptation because trait T exists and there is a difference between G1 and G2 is unfounded. It’s simply a just-so story, using the old EP reverse engineering. The two papers referenced by Thompson are not evidence that the BMD is an adaptation, it only shows that there are racial differences in the trait. That there are racial differences in the two traits does not license the claim that the traits in question are an adaptation as Thompson seems to be claiming. The papers he refers to only note a difference between the two groups; it does not discuss the ultimate etiology of the difference between the groups, which Thompson does with his just-so story.