The various Australopithecines, viewed as a single group at the higher taxonomic level, are generally more similar to one another than any individual specimen is to any living primate. They are uniquely different from any living form to a degree comparable at least to the differences among living genera. If Oxnard is correct, the Australopithecines do not have as much to tell us about human origins as has been assumed. However, these fossil bones can still be instructive about human nature . The validity of evidence or interpretations that support one's viewpoints is accepted with astonishing ease.
Critical analysis is perfunctory at best.
This aspect of human nature makes openness to diverse viewpoints imperative in any scientific or scholarly community. Proponents of a particular viewpoint will not, indeed, usually cannot , probe the seamier sides of their theories. Therefore, dissidents must be cherished in science. Far from threatening the community, they are its irreplaceable creative catalysts. Any scientific community that does not cherish its dissidents, no matter how exasperating, blind, misguided or downright stubborn they may appear, has already taken the first step away from science.