Human/primate ancestry and the so-called "missing link"

[Vortigern99]

New hominid discovery perpetuates media abuse of "missing link" monniker

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...derstanding-of-how-man-evolved-from-apes.html

Australopithecus sediba (2 mya: South Africa) ~4' tall. Small brain case, strong hands and long arms indicate australopithecene classification; small teeth, projecting nose, advanced pelvis, and long legs indicate hominid placement.

The linked article itself does not contain the phrase "missing link", but the embedded link to the article, from another site, did contain the phrase. I find that maddening, but the information contained in the article is nonetheless fascinating.

Prof Lee Berger, from South Africa's University of Witwatersrand, who led the team, said: “These fossils give us an extraordinarily detailed look into a new chapter of human evolution and provide a window into a critical period when hominids made the committed change from dependency on life in the trees to life on the ground.

"Australopithecus sediba appears to present a mosaic of features demonstrating an animal comfortable in both worlds."

He added: "They... are potentially a Rosetta stone into the past."

"They represent a completely new and unexpected species of human ancestor to science. Something we did not think was there.

"What we have found are arguably the most complete early hominid skeletons ever discovered."

But on the other hand:

Dr Darren Curnoe, a specialist in human evolution at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the research, insisted that the fossils were not ancestors of modern man.

“The discovery of one, let alone two, partial skeletons of the fossil relatives of humans is a rare and truly amazing thing.

“It also adds yet another branch to our evolutionary tree and confirms an emerging picture of nature’s grand experiment with human-like apes, living humans the sole survivor of evolutionary tinkering.”

But he added: “Australopithecus sediba is the wrong species, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time.

“It is way too primitive to be the ancestor of the human genus Homo, one of our direct ancestors.”

 

[macdoc]

but but.....yeti !!!!!