Stuff about evolution of man?

Question

what was the name of the imaginary creature that is considered to be missing link between chimps and humans?

Answer 1

I can't remember what the name was supposed to be, if one existed.

I do remember that the whole mess was a poorly contrived make-believe attempt by religious fundies to deny science

Didn't work then and doesn't work now.

Answer 2

Basically, everytime a new fossil is found, and often the gaps are 1/2 million years apart, that becomes a "Missing Link"...

Examples:

Lucy.......................3.3 million years old

Homo hablis................2.4 million years old

Homo ergaster.............1.9 million years old

Homo erectus..............1.7 million years old

Homo antecessor.........0.8 million years old

Homo heidelbergensis...0.6 million years old

Homo neanderthalensis.0.3 million years old

homo sapiens...............0.2 million years old

Any new find, becomes the missing link in-between what is already known!

Answer 3

Missing link is a concept that doesn't have much meaning any more.  It was predicted by Darwin that some creature should exist in the fossil record that has characteristics of humans and apes.  They have found several distinct lineages that fit that descriptions but there still aren't enough to know for sure exactly which are ancestors of modern humans.  

In case your question was serious and not a knock against evolution, you might be thinking of Piltdown man..

Answer 4

The name is the 'missing link'.  It was originally thought that only 1 species filled the gap between man's evolution from the chimpanzee.  This idea has since proven false, more species that seemed to evolve along the same genetic lines as we did form more of a complex tree of inheritance rather than a straight and linear path.  Their are 'missing link' species, but finding and determining that one is is difficult, as is placing it correctly.

Answer 5

Is imaginary creature a pejorative term? If so then let me perform magic:

Let's call it something like, Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus, or A. anamensis.

If you are referring to the common ancestor, than that species is not known and possibly never will be since it would be way too difficult to identify even if we did find it.

Answer 6

The missing link is now a myth - hundreds of the "links" you refer to have been found.  

Try reading a science book that was printed after the 1950's.

Answer 7

You are probably speaking of the Piltdown Hoax.  In the period 1908-1912 a number of fossil remains were recovered in a gravel pit in Piltdown by Charles Dawson.

Some of the fragments were human skull fragments, which when reconstructed were of a thick, but otherwise modern-looking skull.  Purported to have been found with the skull was an ape-like jaw.

Piltdown was accepted as real for a variety of reasons:  British national pride, the predominant theories of the time about human evolution, which expected that cranial size would become modern looking before dentition and lower jaw, and the fact that the remains were locked away so other anthropologists could not examine them.

By the 1940's, it was plain that Piltdown did not fit other human remain that had been found.  In 1953, the remains were found to be a genuine fossil skull, but the jaw was an unfossilized Orang jaw filed to meet the expectations of 1912.

It is still unknown who perpetrated the hoax, and various people have pointed the finger at everyone associated with the finds.  Still, Charles Dawson is the likeliest hoaxer.

Piltdown is pointed at by some as a reason to distrust science or evolution, but it is worth pointing that the hoax was discovered by scientists and in the process of doing science.

wl

Answer 8

The missing link is still missing, Is this what Darwin was referring when he said,: "In future ages many fossils will be discovered" but it is as much a mystery now as it was in Darwin's day.

Answer 9

1.) It was not imaginary: Homo Sapiens Sapiens shares more than 98% of the DNA in common with Pan Troglodytes (chimpanzees). 2.) Possibly Paranthropus, or a close ancestral form.

Answer 10

LOL, that is funny. Maybe is called a missing link because it is missing ; )