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Post by legacyof22 on May 20, 2009 7:10:54 GMT -5
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Post by lunarxero on May 20, 2009 8:19:24 GMT -5
I can not wait. ;D
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Post by Jedi Knight on May 20, 2009 10:32:38 GMT -5
I've heard of it in the news, of course. After all, the research is done by a Norwegian-led team. I see the fossil is an important one, as it is so old and almost complete. I'm looking forward to getting more information.
I just dislike how they throw the term "missing link" around. I don't like the term, as it comes with all the wrong connotations, and often is used to misrepresent the theory of evolution.
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Post by deliciousdemon on May 20, 2009 11:29:23 GMT -5
All fossils, all organisms are "missing links". The media just seems to love the term and use it as frequently as possible. I think scientists use it because it is a commonly used buzz word and it is easily understood by the general public.
EDIT
No evolutionary biologist would ever say this:
Evolution by natural selection is confirmed.
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Post by Sandafluffoid on May 20, 2009 11:38:40 GMT -5
As has been pointed out, it isn't going to finish Creationism and it isn't going to 'prove' anything about Darwin's theory. But what really is interesting is that it was found in Europe, I'm no primate palaeontologist, but that suggests that Europe could well be more important in biological human evolution than is commonly seen.
Aside from anything, a 47-million year old fossil with opposable thumbs is a real find. It may not be as ground-breaking as some media outlets are making it look, but it sure is interesting.
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Post by Vene on May 20, 2009 11:52:47 GMT -5
No, it's a fucking huge find, oldest primate fossil and so complete. Yeah, very important find. I mean, it's not like it verifies evolution (long since done) or anything, but it's still a major discovery.
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Post by Trevelyan on May 20, 2009 12:09:18 GMT -5
I don't like the missing link term either. What the fundies want is ONE fossil that would somehow show a jump from primate to fully human. I suppose this would mean that it had features that fit in with both primates and humans, or maybe that it was 50% of each. Perhaps with a funny hat as well.
Unfortunately, there is no one link like that. Merely a series a links that show us how we got from one species to the next. Fortunately, this seems to be another link in that chain so awesome on that.
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Post by Vene on May 20, 2009 12:13:12 GMT -5
But, Trev, we are fully primate. And, we do have a lot of fossils that are very clear transitional species in human evolution. Too bad that they are so good at denial.
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Post by Old Viking on May 20, 2009 13:16:41 GMT -5
To me, anything that will piss off the fundies is a great find.
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Zabimaru
Full Member
Always amused and bemused
Posts: 241
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Post by Zabimaru on May 20, 2009 13:35:28 GMT -5
I was happy to see this as the Google logo for today:  I'm a bit unhappy that the filename is "missinglink.gif" because as others have pointed out, that does portray a misunderstanding of things. Of course it is a link between something and something else and it was missing up until now, it's just not the missing link since such a thing doesn't exist. Anyway, I'm sure that fundies will have even more conspiracy theories about Google now, and I'm sure that it will be entertaining. |
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Post by Trevelyan on May 20, 2009 13:50:35 GMT -5
But, Trev, we are fully primate. And, we do have a lot of fossils that are very clear transitional species in human evolution. Too bad that they are so good at denial. Right, I wasn't being very clear I suppose. What I'm was trying to get across is that fundies want us to find a fossil that's a bit like a hologram I guess. Look at it one way and "Oh looks it's a monkey" and then shift your head a little bit and "Oh look a human." Their ability to misunderstand everything is quite breath taking. |
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Post by Vene on May 20, 2009 22:29:22 GMT -5
I like to nitpick
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Post by mice34 on May 20, 2009 22:45:44 GMT -5
I really want to see that Attenborough documentary on it, there better be a torrent.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on May 21, 2009 0:05:20 GMT -5
But I like my boxers! On topic, add me to the hating the missing link term bandwagon. I somehow found myself in a creation/evolution argument, and one of the first things I had to point out was that "missing link" was a media term. Speaking of Fundies, what do you guys think on all of the RRers insisting that it seems more like a dinosaur fossil? (I must confess, when I first saw Google's logo, that's what I thought it was, but the more I looked at the graphic after hearing about what it was, the more primate-like it seemed.) |
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Post by Vene on May 21, 2009 0:21:39 GMT -5
Well, reptiles and mammals do share the majority of their skeleton, consequence of sharing an ancestor and all.
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