• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Missing Link found!!!

Is Ida a genuine link in the chain to homo sap, or just another side venture?
In the bush that contains the path from really old things to us, has "she" been found to be in -our- chain of development, or just another experiment that went off to some other end product, like the lemur she resembles, but few humans do?
 
I knew where he was since I was 5...

MissingLink.jpg
 
Cleon said:
Yep. The phrase "missing link" just isn't used by evolutionary biologists, because it just doesn't make sense - every specimen is a link, and every one is "missing" until we know about it.

Evolution is a mosaic. Traits come and go over time, not all at once. "Missing Link" gives the impression that one generation is ape, and the next one is human. Evolution just doesn't work like that.
Click to expand...

especially since humans are apes.:D
 
Yeah, it's a cool fossil, and it's a link and all that. But the foofraw over it may be more hype than anything else.

The unveiling was part of a promotion effort by the History Channel and Little, Brown Book Group, which are producing a documentary and a book about the discovery.

There is no question that this is an important scientific finding. The fossil purchased by scientists at a market in Europe is exceptionally well preserved. But the documentary is titled "The Link: This Changes Everything," and the press kit for the event declares that reporters are about to "witness the most important find in 47 million years."

So I phoned Dr. Tim White at the University of California, Berkeley. White is a renowned paleontologist who played a key role in the discovery of "Lucy," the first ape-like creature to stand erect and many other important findings about the evolution leading to humans.

"Three words," he said. "Over the top."

The people who promoted this event make a big deal out of the possible place this newly discovered fossil plays in the evolution leading to humans. But if you read their actual scientific paper in a respectable peer-reviewed scientific journal (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005723) the scientists make no such claim.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom