Is there still a "missing link?"?

Question

Is there still a "missing link?"?

Answer 1

I think so, scientist will never know every thing.  I would read the missing link trilogy by Kate Thompson.  Its a young adult book, but its still good (not real, fiction).  I think you would enjoy it.

Answer 2

my boss is the missing link.

hairy and looks liek a gorilla

he is the gene pool link

Answer 3

There are many.  Human evolution is not as clear as perhaps our high school teachers told us.  Bone doesn't survive all that well, and we're talking about millions of years here.  We've got enough to tell us the basics about how we came here, and DNA studies have helped, too.  In general, though, we really don't have a complete picture at all.  We've seen this over the past year or so: it turns out h. erectus and h. habilis overlapped and we found a new hominid, h. floriensis.  There are likely more exciting finds out there, waiting for us.  It's even more likely that entire branches of our family tree died off without leaving us any evidence at all.

Answer 4

We don't have missing links just because there is some DNA that has not been analyzed.  Chuckle.  

The term was originally meant to find an intermediate between apes and men.  We have found several.  Someone can, as has been demonstrated, always find some missing link in the puzzle.

Answer 5

yes. i think so!

Answer 6

Yes, until we can track evolution backward through the gene pool & absolutely identify every evolutionary step, we will have a missing link.  Transitional links are very difficult to identify from bones or fossiles & are likely to be identified as a differing species (or abnormal individule) rather than a transitional link.

The field of genetics is working frantically to "reverse engineer" ancient DNA broken down by bacteria & hopes to complete sequencing of the neandertal (neanderthal) genome in 2009.  This will allow us to examine some genes thought to have been "introgressed" into the Sapien genome by interbreeding.  At the very least this will solidify the differences between the two species.

Some progress is being made on reverse engineering fossiles but it will be years before the 1st homo erectus DNA is sequenced.  Until we can absoutely identify DNA links, we will having missing links.

Chuckle, Bravozulu is not the missing link, regardless of what one might think.

It is my contention that without some concrete method of identifying a fossile, one can expect several differing opinions as to what it means.  Ask Eric Trinkaus what it means & he will immediately fit the find into a hypothesis that supports his view or regional evolution & those with the out of Africa view will rationalize a means of fitting the find into their hypothesis.  I suspect a hybrid of 2 species would go unidentified unless one discovered several nearly complete examples.

Because so few fossiles exist, we have to fill in the missing evidence with "likely" situationns.  Therefore we really have many "missing links."  I suspect biological sciences will eventually be able to confirm some of the "links" anthropologists fight about & deny other arguements.

As to the creationist view of the "missing link"  that was resolved long ago. Human chromosome #2 is easily identified as a fusion of 2 chimp chromosomes. We don't know when this chromosome fused to give humans 46 chromosomes Vs 48 for the chimp.  Chuckle, perhaps it split?

Answer 7

sure, he's George W. Bush!

hehe

Answer 8

I agree with Bravozulu that the simple definition has been fulfilled and has been fulfilled for a while now.

Answer 9

A popular term used to designate transitional forms (fossils) is "the missing link". The term is especially used in the regular media, but inaccurate and confusing. This is partly because it implies that there is a single link missing to complete the picture, which must be discovered. In reality, the continuing discovery of more and more transitional fossils is further adding to our knowledge of evolutionary transitions. The term probably arose in the 19th century where the awaited discovery of a "missing link" between humans and so-called "lower" animals was considered to be the final proof of evolution. The Australopithecus afarensis fossil (more commonly known as "Lucy") is seen as a key transitional fossil.

The discovery of Australopithecus africanus (Taung Child), Java Man, Homo erectus, Sinanthropus pekinensis (Peking Man), etc. are also vital to the study of links.

Answer 10

The term "missing link" often is used to describe a transitional creature that is the connection between apes and men.

In fact, apes and men have a common ancestor but men did not arise from apes.

Think of it this way: You did not come from your aunt, you came from your mother, but your aunt and you have common ancestor, namely a set of grandparents.

Answer 11

There are in fact any number of missing links.  If/when the common ancestor between humans and chimps is discovered it would/will be hailed as the missing link, but what about between that species and the common ancestors for gorillas, orangutans, then the lesser apes, monkeys, the list goes on and on.  A "missing link"  is merely an (as yet) undiscovered common ancestor between two species.