5/19/09

The Missing Link?

Maybe:
Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.

The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".


I want to see what some of the many science Bloggers out there have to say about this because I am pretty sure this only plugs one hole in the links.

[update]
Pharyngula is already telling people not to overeact:

When Laelaps says, "I have the feeling that this fossil, while spectacular, is being oversold," I think he's being spectacularly understated. Wilkins also knocks down the whole "missing link" label. The hype is bad news, not because Ida is unimportant, but because it detracts from the larger body of the fossil record — I doubt that the media will be able to muster as much excitement from whatever new fossil gets published in Nature or Science next week, no matter how significant it may be.
Anyways...

Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known.
- Bishop of Worcester's wife to Charles Darwin

2 comments:

Omnipotent Poobah said...

To some, it would only be the 8th wondr of the world if they saw it appear on their breakfast toast like a crusty Virgin Mary.

Connecticut Man1 said...

Where was the latest appearance? I think it was a Cheetos?