Abstract
For many years it has been the consensus among evolutionists that the australopithecines (various species within the genus ) were intermediate between Man and the apes, indicating that this creature was on the direct evolutionary line between Man and the hypothetical common ancestor of apes and Man (see D. T. Gish, pp. 72-112). The first specimen was discovered by Dr. Raymond Dart in 1924. Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife Mary in 1959 uncovered the skull of a creature they named , which they claimed at the time was hitherto unknown and was an important link in man's evolution. Later research by others and by Leakey, himself, established that his ("East Africa Man") was simply another variety of ("Southern Ape"). Leakey even began to suggest the possibility that the australopithecines were outside of the direct line leading to man — a sterile sidebranch.