Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution. A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.
Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.
Revealing the Link website.
3 comment(s):
Oh sweet Darwin! Stuff like this will upset the priestcraft mob.
Actually, the name has not been accepted as official-it's supposed to be in print, in peer-reviewed journals, before the name is revealed online. So they will have to rename it.
And, given that The Vatican has issued an edict in support of evoution, no, this won't really rattle anyone of the religious persuasion.
Funny, this article sort of skipped a few details... like this
"Norwegian paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led a team of scientists who analyzed the fossil in the past two years, said it may resemble one of the earliest ancestors of humans but was not likely to have been a direct ancestor."
LinkA far cry from, "Missing link found."
Or, as my increasingly cynical daughter put it, "we need funding... better say it's linked to humans!"
Post a Comment