The Missing Link (3): The Messel Pit
The Missing Link In Human Evolution? (Part 3): The Messel Pit.
—
Subscribe to Science & Reason:
• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/SagansCosmos
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
—
Official Press Release (PDF):
• http://www.revealingthelink.com/more-about-ida/resources/press_release.pdf
Scientific Publication:
• http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005723
——————————————–
Scientists Discover ‘Missing Link’ In Human Evolution (Source: Sky News, May 19, 2009)
Scientists say they have found a primate fossil that shows our connection with other mammals and our earliest human ancestor. These pictures are from the programme “The Link” by Atlantic Productions.
——————————————–
Scientists hail stunning fossil
By Christine McGourty
Science correspondent, BBC News
The beautifully preserved remains of a 47-million-year-old, lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US. Christine McGourty takes a look at the beautifully preserved primate fossil.
The preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal.
The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a “missing link” between today’s higher primates – monkeys, apes and humans – and more distant relatives.
But some independent experts, awaiting an opportunity to see the new fossil, are sceptical of the claim.
And they have been critical of the hype surrounding the presentation of Ida.
The fossil was launched amid great fanfare at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, by the city’s mayor.
Although details of the fossil have only just been published in a scientific journal – PLoS One – there is already a TV documentary and book tie-in.
She belongs to the group from which higher primates and human beings developed but my impression is she is not on the direct line
Dr Jens Franzen
Ida was discovered in the 1980s in a fossil treasure-trove called Messel Pit, near Darmstadt in Germany. For much of the intervening period, it has been in a private collection.
The investigation of the fossil’s significance was led by Jorn Hurum of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway.
He said the fossil creature was “the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor” and described the discovery as “a dream come true”.
The female animal lived during an epoch in Earth history known as the Eocene, which was crucial for the development of early primates – and at first glance, Ida resembles a lemur.
But the creature lacks primitive features such as a so-called “toothcomb”, a specialised feature in which the lower incisor and canine teeth are elongated, crowded together and projecting forward. She also lacks a special claw used for grooming.
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8057465.stm
——————————————–
The Grube Messel (Messel Pit) is a disused quarry near the village of Messel (Hesse), about 35 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its plethora of fossils, it has significant geological and scientific importance. The Messel Pit was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site on December 9, 1995.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messel_Pit
.
Duration : 0:5:3
[youtube rkBWRjQaZBI]
Your thought …
Your thought experiment is a fabulous example of fantasy.
lets imagine that there is a one-eyed animal eating monster on that island that gains 20deg in temperature too.
I dont think they would look the same…i think they would all be dead. they would then form part of the fossil record 4u2 find in a 1000 yrs &claim they evolved in2 a completely diff animal.
However if we play your ‘game’ then they would be easily recognizable as the original animal with minor differences, like Ida.
regards
lets try a thought …
lets try a thought experiment.. im assuming u dont deny that mutations occur or that animals migrate. well that should be all that u need to explain the diversity we see in nature. what would happen if u took a large population and divided it in half and sent one half to an island and left the other where it was, if the island is 20 degrees hotter on avg, if the food there is up trees instead of on the ground, etc? after thousands of years, do u think theyre gonna look the same?
pure speculation.
…
pure speculation.
highly unlikely that a lemur gives birth to a baby without opposable thumbs. it would be a mutant not unlike a baby without hands. A switching off of the gene to create hands & likely to be restored with the next generation. But lets say u r right 100%. She is still a lemur.
Ida was the issue….she is a lemur not an ancestor of the human race & not the missing link.
interestg that 47 million yrs hasnt changed her much. strong evidence that evolution doesnt change alot.
lemur has 2 babies, …
lemur has 2 babies, A and B. A has opposable thumb, B does not. A and B both have babies. the offspring of A has the thumb A had, B’s babies do not. after many generations some lemurs will have thumbs and some will not and at some point the two diverge further when they quit mating with eachother because of migration or b/c of desire to mate with similar type and then the real differences show up because they have nothing to do w eachother anymore cuz they dont mix. whats so hard to understand?
Now to address the …
Now to address the issues raised.
“mutations are rare” der!
“but a lemur w opposable thumbs is better.. etc u get it?”
Did u break that news to th Indri lemur? It wil b offended that u think its not beta. What do u mean by etc? is that a major part of your point?
“ya i think the entire scientific community is a conspiring bunch of robots and everything they conclude is a scam and arsjth the loser is right.”
No.sometimes i am wrong.same as wen th prevailing scientific view had th world as flat.
mutations are rare …
mutations are rare u stupid asshole,
hows suck my smarter & better evolved dick
motherfucker
should go kill urself
so ur one of those stupid
‘religiously’ asshole
i dont know where i got the impression that atheists were abusive and angry?
u sound like a really nice guy who is well educated & has no trouble explaining himself.
when an argument is weak then u abuse the man. Ad hominem arguments.
genetic information …
genetic information is 99.999% copied over ‘religiously’ thats why. so most lemurs are still lemurs but the few who also got an accidental opposable thumb also survived and when they reproduced the ‘error’ got copied too cuz remember its 99.999% perfect. there would have also been lemurs born with heart defects too and some w web feet and some w hemophilia etc but those are all BAD things so they get kept in check. sorry if thinking in evolutionary terms is a nontrivial task.