# Missing link discovered? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988 "2009-05-19T17:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/1 "2009-05-19T17:47:59Z")
[Sky News](http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Missing-Link-Scientists-In-New-York-Unveil-Fossil-Of-Lemur-Monkey-Hailed-As-Mans-Earliest-Ancestor/Article/200905315284582?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15284582_Missing_Link%3A_Scientists_In_New_York_Unveil_Fossil_Of_Lemur_Monkey_Hailed_As_Mans_Earliest_Ancestor) > [@](#): > > Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution. > The discovery of the 95%-complete ‘lemur monkey’ - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the “eighth wonder of the world”. > > They say its impact on the world of palaeontology will be “somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth”. > > Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle. > > Sir David Attenborough said Darwin “would have been thrilled” to have seen the fossil - and says it tells us who we are and where we came from. Huh? I thought the whole missing link idea was outmoded? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/2 "2009-05-19T17:59:57Z")
> **[Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution, Darwins theory now confirmed.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=518163)** > > I doubt this will make much difference to the fundamentalist beliefs, but at least its an important link in the chain for those of us that give a damn. 🙂 The idea of a “missing link” is not so much outmoded as never been moded. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/3 "2009-05-19T18:15:11Z")
Ah, my bad. I should have checked in GD as well before posting. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/4 "2009-05-19T19:04:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Huh? I thought the whole missing link idea was outmoded? Any source that claims that a single recently-discovered fossil “finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution” can be discounted as being about a century out of date in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/5 "2009-05-19T19:21:37Z")
It’s still hopelessly moded in journalistic circles. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/6 "2009-05-19T19:26:50Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > It’s still hopelessly moded in journalistic circles. Alas, this is true. ---
**Author:** ![Grendel\_s\_Father](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grendel\_s\_Father](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grendel_s_Father)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/7 "2009-05-19T19:27:59Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > It’s still hopelessly moded in journalistic circles. [http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/a\_discovery\_that\_will\_change\_e.php](http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/a_discovery_that_will_change_e.php) [http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/this\_says\_it\_all\_really.php](http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2009/05/this_says_it_all_really.php) Journalistic circles are about one step above 4chan when it comes to science reporting. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/8 "2009-05-19T19:42:14Z")
It’s a significant find, but its significance is being presented in a wildly simplistic and sensationalist style in the tabloid link. The “missing link” language is, of course hokum predicated on hokum, as is the woefully late announcement that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has been confirmed," but it’s still interesting in that it represents not a link between humans and monkeys (which is not a claim made by evolutionary theory), but a link between lemurs and primates. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/9 "2009-05-19T20:48:49Z")
Sadly, that article is quoting the researchers with the most egregious lines about what this find means. > [@](#): > > Sir David Attenborough said Darwin “would have been thrilled” to have seen the fossil - and says it tells us who we are and where we came from. > > “This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals,” he said. > > "This is the one that connects us directly with them. > > "Now people can say ‘okay we are primates, show us the link’. > > “The link they would have said up to now is missing - well it’s no longer missing.” That’s from Sir David Attenborough. Ugh. He should know better. > [@](#): > > The experts concluded Ida was not simply a lemur but a ‘lemur monkey’, displaying a mixture of both groups, and therefore putting her at the very branch of the human line. Very branch of the human line? No, that happened somewhere in Chimpanzee. This is a transition between lemurs and monkeys, way before humans were anywhere around. There’s a lot of sensationalist nonsense that I can’t quite pin down on the scientists being overly enthusiastic on what the find means and the writer misunderstanding what they are saying. But David Attenborough sure didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-link-discovered/496988/10 "2009-05-19T23:19:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Any source that claims that a single recently-discovered fossil “finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution” can be discounted as being about a century out of date in the first place. Actually, Darwin pretty well confirmed his own theory of evolution by natural selection (or as he often referred to it “Descent with Modification”) by the extensive research he did with various species (decades long in the case of barnacles). Everything since in terms of phylogenetics has just served to further confirm natural selection. The piece Darwin was missing was not empirical support but the method of heredity, i.e. genes and gametes. Stranger