Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link&

[JGolomb]

I know this community doesn't respond much to most non-Roman specific news, but I think this is going to be pretty big and far reaching, so I thought I'd share.

Note - I work at National Geographic, but didn't have any hand in this story...I'm just tossing out what was released today on ng.com.

 

Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link"

 

some highlights from the story:

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.

 

The centerpiece of a treasure trove of new fossils, the skeleton

Edited October 2, 2009 by JGolomb

[Northern Neil]

This is indeed a fascinating find, and most people on this site would share your interest in our remote prehistory. The 'missing link' is a highly subjective term, coined I believe in the 19th century by religious types pressing evolutionists (as they do now!) to come up with a tranitional fossil with which to prove their theory. As is often the case, when scientists actually find one, they then say 'Ahh... I dont mean one like that'.

 

Richard Leakey, for many years one of the most eminent scientists in this field, stated that Homo Erectus was the missing link as everything before it was distinctly ape-like, and everything after distinctly human - like. Although Erectus had an anatomically modern skeleton - from the neck down - the head had some apelike features, such as flat face and prominent eyebrow ridges.

 

"It shows that the last common ancestor with chimps didn't look like a chimp, or a human, or some funny thing in between."

 

...in itself, a missing link perhaps?