Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution

Necuno

Necuno

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Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution

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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".

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.

"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."

A team of the world's leading fossil experts, led by Professor Jorn Hurum, of Norway's National History Museum, have been secretly researching the 1ft 9in-tall young female monkey for the past two years.

And now it has been transported to New York under high security and unveiled to the world during the bicentenary of Darwin's birth.

Later this month, it will be exhibited for one day only at the Natural History Museum in London before being returned to Oslo.

Scientists say Ida - squashed to the thickness of a beer mat by the immense passage of time - is the most complete primate fossil ever found.

With her human-like nails instead of claws, and opposable big toes, she is placed at the very root of human evolution when early primates first developed features that would eventually develop into our own.

Another important discovery is the shape of the talus bone in her foot, which humans still have in their feet millions of lifetimes later.

Ida was unearthed by an amateur fossil-hunter some 25 years ago in Messel pit, an ancient crater lake near Frankfurt, Germany, famous for its fossils.

She was cleaned and set in polyester resin - and incredibly, was hung on a mystery German collector's wall for 20 years.

Sky News sources say the owner had no idea of the unique fossil's significance and simply admired it like a cherished Van Gogh or Picasso painting.

But in 2006, Ida came into the hands of private dealer Thomas Perner, who presented her to Prof Hurum at the annual Hamburg Fossil and Mineral Fair in Germany - a centre for the murky world of fossil-trading.

Prof Hurum said when he first saw the blueprint for evolution - the "most beautiful fossil worldwide" - he could not sleep for two days.

A home movie records the dramatic moment.

"This is really something that the world has never seen before, this is a unique specimen, totally unique," he says, clearly emotional.

He says he knew she should be saved for science rather than end up hidden from the world in a wealthy private collector's vault.

But the dealer's asking price was more than $1 million (£660,000) - ten times the amount even the rarest of fossils fetch on the black market.

Eventually, after six mo....
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It doesnt change the here and now. At best its a, "Oh thats nice to know, hey whats on TV tonight."
 
I think that a big criticism of the theory of evolution has been the absense of the "missing link". So I would imagine that this discovery will strengthen evolutionary theory, which I quite significant. Theres not much on tv tonight. Emo :(
 
From the article:

And now it has been transported to New York under high security and unveiled to the world during the bicentenary of Darwin's birth.

How very, utterly, ridiculously, ludicrously, incredibly convenient. :rolleyes:

The fortunate coincidence of it all is so convincingly believable it's astounding! :p

I call BS! :mad::sick:
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-old-lemur-revolutionise-human-evolution.html

The scientists who presented the fossil today claimed she was an important 'missing link' in mankind's family tree - and helps shed light on a crucial part of evolution.

But some independent experts are sceptical about the fossil and claim her unveiling - timed to coincide with a lucrative book and television documentary - own more to showbiz than science.

Ida was discovered in the 1983 in a fossil treasure trove called the Messel Pit in Germany by private collectors who split the skeleton in two and sold both halves.
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This missing link, although a great specimen, is more of a disappointment than a world changing find and anyone with half a brain would realize that this is one hell of a marketing campaign to promote the upcoming documentary and the book.
 
Doesn't hype just ruin everything these days. Even impressive things become a huge disappointment becuase the hype made them seem earth shattering. Really, the media need to stop over advertising everything. We are becoming desensitised.
 
Secular scientists maintain that even at only 95% complete, some ‘unknown force’ kept Ida well preserved in the mud at the bottom of a volcanic lake. The scientists in this case have cited they have found evidence of Ida’s fur shadow and remains of her last meal.

While all this is fine, it is also an equally interesting coincidence that Ida was discovered within a ‘volcanic lake’ and was preserved by an ‘unknown force’ because such descriptors blatantly match the profile of Satan.

Hell is the most volcanic lake in existence and Satan is well known for his interest in paleontology, as it begets the Lies of Evolution.
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More if you can stomach it.

:D
 
If it's a spoof, then every scientist in the world must be in on it. :D

I seriously doubt it hey. But let's see.
 
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