Obviously, a discovery of a living population of Homo erectus would stir up the EvC debate. My question is, would this be the smoking gun of evolution for creationists?
No. They're a predictable bunch. It would play out like this:
(1) They would make the same excuses for the anatomy of living specimens as they do for the fossil specimens.
(2) They would make the same excuses for the evidence from molecular phylogeny as they do for the molecular evidence from every other species.
(3) They would claim that we can't be descended from
H. erectus if it's still alive (as in "why are there still monkeys?")
(4) They would claim that "evolutionists" said that
H. erectus was extinct and that therefore "evolutionists" have been proved wrong, ignoring the facts that everyone thinks that they're extinct and that the reason for this has nothing to do with evolution and everything to do with the fact that no-one can find a living specimen (see also coelacanths, the Wollemi pine).
(5) They would ignore the fact that every biologist in the world was partying like it was 1999.
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