100: Chapter 100: Humans Have No Evolutionary Intermediate State

Xiaoyu's questions piqued the curiosity of countless viewers.

"Since we're so special and our bodies are so flawed, where did we actually come from?"

"Can the theory of evolution really explain humans? Like Xiaoyu, I'm starting to have doubts!"

"Darwin's coffin lid won't stay shut!"

"Besides evolution, what else could explain it?"

"..."

Jiang Zhe looked at his sister's enlightened expression and said calmly, "Xiaoyu, to know if evolution can explain our gradual progression from ancient apes to Homo sapiens, you need a deep understanding of the theory."

Jiang Zhe picked up the tablet on the table, opened a drawing app, and casually drew a slowly rising curve.

Turning the screen toward Xiaoyu, he asked, "Xiaoyu, do you know what the core of evolutionary theory is?"

Xiaoyu looked at the screen and the answer came naturally: "It's gradual change!"

"Correct." Jiang Zhe nodded and said with certainty, "The evolution of one species into another is never an overnight process; it takes ages. During that time, there are numerous 'transitional forms'."

"Organisms possess traits of both their ancestors and descendants; these are the 'intermediate states' in evolutionary theory."

He then pulled up a whale-like creature with four limbs and gray fur, an animal that walked on land.

"Do you recognize this?"

"Yeah, it looks like a whale. I think it's an ancestor of whales from tens of millions of years ago."

Xiaoyu looked at the picture her brother showed her. Although she hadn't studied it, she could distinguish what kind of species it was.

Jiang Zhe nodded gently and began to give examples calmly.

"What you see now—we have clearly discovered a terrestrial mammal called Pakicetus among whale fossils. It lived in the early Eocene, about 52 to 48 million years ago, as a primitive cetacean."

"It was a whale that walked on land."

"You can observe the gradual evolution from the fossils—how it went through a series of transitional species like Ambulocetus and Remingtonocetus. You can see their limbs gradually evolving into flippers over time, and their nostrils moving toward the top of the head, eventually becoming modern whales."

"This chain of evidence is the 'evolutionary' sequence of organisms."

Seeing this, Xiaoyu nodded slightly.

Jiang Zhe then pulled up an evolutionary diagram from the Eohippus to the modern horse.

Xiaoyu looked at the picture her brother pulled up. The ancient horse wasn't much to look at; it was smaller than a donkey and earthy in color.

"What you're looking at now is the ancient horse."

"It started from the small Eohippus and became the modern horse—their body size gradually increased, their toes evolved from four to a single hoof, and their tooth structure adapted to grass... There are so many fossils that they can be arranged into a complete evolutionary specimen!"

He continued by switching to birds!

"Look at birds. The Archaeopteryx fossil is small, about the size of a wild chicken, but it looks like both a pterosaur and a wild chicken. It has the teeth and long tail of a reptile, yet the feathers and wings of a bird. It's a classic link in the transition from dinosaurs to birds."

"There are many others I won't list one by one."

Jiang Zhe put down the tablet and looked at Xiaoyu. "The transitional species of these organisms are the strongest evidentiary foundation for evolutionary theory. They prove that species evolution is gradual and traceable."

At this moment, the viewers in the livestream also chimed in, agreeing with this.

"That's right, my biology teacher said this in class."

"Whale evolution is practically textbook; no other creature is more obvious than the whale!"

"It seems the general direction of evolutionary theory is correct!"

"..."

After hearing her brother's words, Xiaoyu nodded thoughtfully. "So, the transitional species for humans should be various ancient apes or ape-men, right?"

"Like Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus?"

Xiaoyu's question was a bit of an assumption, exactly what the viewers were thinking.

Since all organisms have gradual intermediate states, humans naturally have them too—at least, that's what they believed.

Kyoto, University of History faculty housing.

The muscles on Old Professor Liu's face tensed, and beside him, Professor Chen Runzhi, Qian Mingyi, and Professor Wang Shouren also held their breath.

They sensed something, and it didn't feel right.

Inside Qingfeng Temple, Dr. Zhou Ming's gaze gradually sharpened.

Although Zheng Ming beside him was unconvinced, he also perked up his ears to listen; after all, evolutionary theory was a universally recognized authority!

In an office in Guangzhou, Teacher Chen Min's hands gradually clenched into fists, and the expression on his face began to change.

On the screen.

In response to Xiaoyu's question, Jiang Zhe slowly shook his head.

"No," Jiang Zhe's voice was clear yet soft. "Humans do not have a species of 'ape-man'. To put it simply... humans have no transitional species."

Xiaoyu was stunned and subconsciously repeated her brother's words, "Humans have no transitional species?"

She pondered it with some confusion. "Brother, what do you mean? Humans have no transitional species?"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "It means exactly what you're thinking right now."

"Ah?"

Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes widened instantly, and her head buzzed as if something had exploded.

She recalled the examples her brother had given. Whales had the progression from Pakicetus to Ambulocetus; horses had the progression from Eohippus to modern horses; birds had the progression from Archaeopteryx to birds...

Generally, every evolving species had names and even fossils for their intermediate states!

So what about humans?

Australopithecus: Lucy—that was an ancestor closer to an ape.

Homo habilis—the tool makers, but their brain capacity was small and their form very primitive!

Homo erectus—already very human-like, but still with huge morphological differences from Homo sapiens.

Neanderthalss—they were cousins of Homo sapiens, far from direct ancestors, and coexisted with Homo sapiens.

Where was the most critical and necessary chain of gradual change between ancient apes and modern Homo sapiens?

Where were the 'half-ape, half-human' transitional fossils that possessed both distinct ape and distinct human characteristics?

"Wait!" Xiaoyu's eyes widened, and a chill set in. "Are you saying, brother, that we didn't slowly become human, but rather... suddenly?"

At this point, she didn't dare continue, overcome by an incredible feeling.

The livestream chat exploded instantly.

"???"

"No transitional species? Is that true?"

"What do you mean? Isn't Australopithecus one?"

"To the person above, Australopithecus is an ancestor, not an intermediate form. The gap is huge!"

"Holy crap, I'm getting goosebumps!"

"Any archaeology big shots here? Is he serious?"

Kyoto, University of History faculty housing.

"He's right." Old Liu took a deep breath and explained with a solemn face, "There is a famous 'missing link' in paleontology, referring to the crucial transitional form from ape to human."

"We have found many ancient ape fossils and many early human fossils around the world, but between the two!"

"There is no complete fossil sequence of that 'gradual change'."

"In the fossil record, the appearance of Homo sapiens manifests as a 'leap'!!"

Old Chen, Old Qian, and Old Wang all gasped on the spot.

Professor Chen Runzhi analyzed while browsing an academic website, "It's not just fossils; culture and technology are the same. In the early Paleolithic, tools barely changed for over a million years. Then, 70,000 to 50,000 years ago, in an instant—art, symbols, complex tools, mysterious sacrificial rituals, and worshiping heaven... a series of behaviors appeared among Homo sapiens groups in many places globally, almost erupting simultaneously."

"This cultural explosion also lacks a gradual, step-by-step process."

...

On the other side, in an office in Guangzhou.

Zhang Yu and the other students were dumbfounded, looking in unison at Teacher Chen Min for an answer.

Chen Min took a deep breath, his expression extremely solemn.

Having taught biology for over twenty years, he felt the very foundation of his knowledge being pried loose by Jiang Zhe.

He nodded with difficulty. "Yes, it's a recognized fact. That diagram in your textbooks—the Evolution of Man from Ape to Upright Walking—is actually... a simplified, even misleading, demonstration."

"Because the fossil evidence for the transition from ape to human in our real world is nowhere near that perfect or continuous."

Hiss— Physics teacher Gao Yuliang was stunned. "What? It's... it's wrong?"

"Yes."

A sudden wave of cold air hit, feeling utterly terrifying and incredible!

...

In the living room.

The air was silent for a long time before Xiaoyu recovered from her state of shock and bewilderment.

She looked at Jiang Zhe, her voice trembling slightly.

"Brother... humans... really don't have transitional species?"

Jiang Zhe shook his head calmly as usual.

"No. This has nothing to do with whether we've found many or few fossils; it's that transitional species for humans don't exist."

"While other species do. Even when the ancestral short-necked giraffe became the long-necked giraffe, there was a transitional species in between called Samotherium, which lived 11 million years ago."

"Even the direct descendants of the short-necked giraffe exist today: the Okapi. It looks a bit like an antelope, its body is somewhat like a horse, but its head is like a giraffe's. It lives in the Congo."

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "As for us humans, at some point on the evolutionary tree of ancient apes, there was a human branch that should have evolved slowly."

"In reality, that branch of ours did not branch out and change gradually according to the normal gradual change."

"It's as if it was directly set into a brand-new form by a mysterious force: Modern Homo sapiens!"

After a brief pause, these words rang out like a thunderclap in the living room and the livestream.

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu calmly.

"Xiaoyu, now think back to your original question."

"Our bodies are full of contradictions, out of sync with Earth's great cycle of life, and lack evidence of natural evolutionary transition..."

"Where, exactly, did we come from?"

Xiaoyu's mouth hung slightly open, and she instantly felt her scalp go numb.

An incredible, unbelievable thought was crashing into her mind!

She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

In the livestream, countless viewers, teachers, and experts were just like her...

Choked by this most fundamental yet most terrifying question, unable to speak.