I suspect those who are enthusiastic about the wonders of science wouldn’t be pushing Cheddar Man if they understood its implications:
Mr Targett, a 42-year-old history teacher in Cheddar, Somerset, has been shown by DNA tests to be a direct descendant, by his mother’s line, of “Cheddar Man”, the oldest complete skeleton ever found in Britain, and now also the world’s most distant confirmed relative.
Even the Royal Family can only trace its heritage back to King Ecgbert, who ruled from 829AD to 830AD. By contrast, Cheddar Man, a hunter- gatherer who pre-dated the arrival of farming, lived in 7150BC.
The news caught everyone by surprise. Mr Targett’s wife, Catherine, said: “This is all a bit of a surprise, but maybe this explains why he likes his steaks rare”.
The discovery came about during tests performed as part of a television series on archaeology in Somerset, Once Upon a Time in the West, to be shown later this year. DNA found in the pulp cavity of one of Cheddar Man’s molar teeth was tested at Oxford University’s Institute of Molecular Medicine, and then compared with that of 20 people locally, whose families were known to have been living in the area for some generations.
To make up the numbers, Mr Targett, an only child who has no children, joined in. But the match was unequivocal: the two men have a common maternal ancestor. The mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from the egg, confirmed it.
Excellent. Now sequence both genomes. If the theory of evolution by natural selection is to remain unfalsified, then there must be at least 10,000 fixated mutations present in Mr. Targett’s genome that are common to all of his neighbors that not present in his ancestor from 300 generations ago.
If evolution were actually science, this is a meaningful falsification that would be tested. But, of course, it won’t be, because the primary role of modern scientists is to publish papers declaring that their findings are consistent with Darwin’s fairy tale, not subject the fairy tale to genuine scientody.