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-   -   47 million year old missing link (?) discovered... (http://ravingatheists.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15382)

VladTheImpaler 05-19-2009 01:29 PM
47 million year old missing link (?) discovered...
 
Quote:
Scientists have discovered an exquisitely preserved ancient primate fossil that they believe forms a crucial "missing link" between our own evolutionary branch of life and the rest of the animal kingdom.

The 47m-year-old primate – named Ida – has been hailed as the fossil equivalent of a "Rosetta Stone" for understanding the critical early stages of primate evolution.
Pretty cool! Read more here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...l-missing-link

Philboid Studge 05-19-2009 02:02 PM
PZM rightly tears the mediums a new one for the phase 'missing link.'

Quote:
She's being called the "missing link in human evolution", which is annoying. The whole "missing link" category is a bit of journalistic trumpery: almost every fossil could be called a link, and it feeds the simplistic notion that there could be a single definitive bridge between ancient and modern species. There isn't: there is the slow shift of whole populations which can branch and diverge. It's also inappropriate to tag this discovery to human evolution. She's 47 million years old; she's also a missing link in chimp evolution, or rhesus monkey evolution. She's got wider significance than just her relationship to our narrow line.

ubs 05-19-2009 02:06 PM
The term also implies a progression and a goal.

RªVΣn 05-19-2009 04:53 PM
Finally!

ghoulslime 05-19-2009 07:33 PM
If we evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys? :|

You rational thinking science lovers are all the same! Ready to believe scientific fact every time it is proven! :rolleyes:

Coach 05-19-2009 08:14 PM
Quote:
ghoulslime wrote (Post 556217)
If we evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys? :|

You rational thinking science lovers are all the same! Ready to believe scientific fact every time it is proven! :rolleyes:
+1 for me...scientific fact is trash when compared to the wonderful magic jesus tricks that you can't disprove.

VladTheImpaler 05-20-2009 12:28 AM
Quote:
Philboid Studge wrote (Post 556174)
PZM rightly tears the mediums a new one for the phase 'missing link.'
Yeah, thanks for that. This missing "link concept" made me uneasy, but I just accepted it with a huge grain of salt. I hate the media.

Philboid Studge 05-20-2009 05:35 AM
http://i44.tinypic.com/29wwf1e.jpg

Philboid Studge 05-20-2009 06:01 AM
A(some) question(s) for you biologist-demographer types:

No living organism is a direct descendant of Ida, since she went tits up before she was old enough to reproduce. But is there not a direct line between contemporary humans and Darwinius masillae? If any one us traced our matrilineal succession backwards -- mum, grandmum, greatgrandmum ... -- we would eventually reach some of Ida's cousins, or possibly, a sister?

Some of us would trace back to the same individual organism: Our great-great-^47-grandmother. (In fact most (?) of us would have a common ancestor since the rise of H. sapiens.) Would all humans have the same c.a. if we did the matrilineal thingy back 47 million years?

To tell you the truth, I can't tell from the coverage of the Darwinius masillae fossil whether its line in fact continued forward or reached a dead end. Is that known or knowable?

Eva 05-20-2009 07:06 AM
from what i heard, there were 2 distinct branches that started around the time of darwinius. the one that gave rise to primates and humans, and the one that gave rise to lemurs and similars.
darwinius is not the forbear of the lemur side.....she lacks two specific fixtures: a set of fused molars, and a scratch claw on her front legs.

ghoulslime 05-20-2009 07:07 AM
Quote:
Eva wrote (Post 556327)
from what i heard, there were 2 distinct branches that started around the time of darwinius. the one that gave rise to primates and humans, and the one that gave rise to lemurs and similars.
darwinius is not the forbear of the lemur side.....she lacks two specific fixtures: a set of fused molars, and a scratch claw on her front legs.
Did you check out the tail on that chick? I'd totally do her. :o

Smellyoldgit 05-20-2009 07:20 AM
I want to know if she was abused during the 20+ years she was kept under wraps.

Eva 05-20-2009 07:24 AM
Quote:
ghoulslime wrote (Post 556328)
Did you check out the tail on that chick? I'd totally do her. :o

yeah i saw her tail....she'd totally do you too....

just questions 05-20-2009 07:25 AM
Quote:
ghoulslime wrote (Post 556328)
Did you check out the tail on that chick? I'd totally do her. :o
But do you know what the tail is for?

http://www.sorayama.com/en/wp-conten...40_27/N031.jpg

Edit: Eva was one step faster.

Philboid Studge 05-20-2009 08:56 AM
Quote:
Jens Franzen: "We're not dealing with our grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt."
That's from the NY Daily News, which has some of the stoopidest coverage I've read.

Quote:
Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution. ... the long-sought missing link between humans and apes. ... evidence of evolutionary changes ... a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. ...like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists ... the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail. ...


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