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Hyped fossil 'link' just a big boner (another disappointing missing link)
New York Post ^ | 10/23/2009 | Malcolm Ritter

Posted on 10/23/2009 10:55:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and TV documentary?

A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction.

In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says an expert at Stony Brook University on Long Island.

Professor Erik Seiffert and his colleagues compared 360 specific anatomical features of 117 living and extinct primate species to draw up a family tree. They report the results in today's issue of the journal Nature.

Ida is a skeleton of a 47-million- year-old cat-sized creature found in Germany. It starred in a book, "The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor," and a TV documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

Ida represents a previously unknown primate species called Darwinius. The scientists who formally announced the finding said they weren't claiming Darwinius was a direct ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. But they did argue that it belongs in the same major evolutionary grouping, and that it showed what an actual ancestor of that era might have looked like.

The new analysis says Darwinius does not belong in the same primate category as monkeys, apes and humans.

Instead, the analysis concluded, it falls into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afradapis; belongsinreligion; darwiniusmasillae; evolution; fossil; ida; longicristatus; missinglink; notasciencetopic; propellerbeanie; science
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The primate skeleton "Ida," once called "the link" to an evolutionary ancestor of humans and apes, turns out not to be even close.
1 posted on 10/23/2009 10:55:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Doesn’t look like a boner to me......


2 posted on 10/23/2009 10:57:21 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Who's your Long Legged MacDaddy?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Every discovery seems to be an attempt to bang that square into the round hole.

I’m not disputing evolution because I am not educated enough in it to dispute anything. However it seems a little odd that instead of discovering things, they try to make a theory hypothosized (sp?) centuries ago to fit now.


3 posted on 10/23/2009 10:57:53 AM PDT by autumnraine (You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Most people just don’t have enough Faith to believe in Darwinism. God is a more logical explanation.

Pray for America and Our Troops


4 posted on 10/23/2009 10:58:17 AM PDT by bray (Hope and Corruption)
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To: autumnraine

Anyone can Dispute ‘A Lie’ like Evolution,
Answer Me This;
If Evolution is True,then Show Me One Example,,,,,NOW.
waiting.....
a bird with Scales?
Dolphin with Lungs?
See what I Mean?
When a Creature ‘Changes’ or Evolves it is Terminal, it Fails.
Tell me How this approach is Flawed,
Thanks,


5 posted on 10/23/2009 11:11:15 AM PDT by bravotu (Have a Nice Day !)
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To: SeekAndFind
Did somebody say "big boner"?


6 posted on 10/23/2009 11:12:41 AM PDT by Jaxter (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.)
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To: SunkenCiv
This will probably get snarky, but what the heck. Ping.
7 posted on 10/23/2009 11:13:32 AM PDT by colorado tanker (Mr. Flyingsaucerballoonboymediawhoreman - this Bud's for you!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Funny thing...

Lemurs are primates.

..Which make the author "not very bright"

8 posted on 10/23/2009 11:18:20 AM PDT by xcamel (The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. - H. L. Mencken)
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To: bravotu

Did you have a point?

Last I knew, Dolphins had lungs, and um (most) Birds have scales on their legs.


9 posted on 10/23/2009 11:21:01 AM PDT by xcamel (The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. - H. L. Mencken)
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To: bravotu
Fair enough. What kind is this?

Also I'm sure your "Dolphins with lungs" question was a typo. All dolphins have lungs.

10 posted on 10/23/2009 11:25:34 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: bravotu
If Evolution is True,then Show Me One Example,,,,,NOW. waiting..... a bird with Scales? Dolphin with Lungs?

...errr.... I suppose you wrote this as a gibe? If not, I give you ::facepalm::.

11 posted on 10/23/2009 11:34:38 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: bravotu
Dolphin with Lungs?

ALL DOLPHINS HAVE LUNGS

When a Creature ‘Changes’ or Evolves it is Terminal, it Fails

False statement. SOME mutations cause a positive heritable change, some cause a negative heritable change, some cause a neutral heritable change, some mutations do nothing other than get passed on........some cause a terminal change.

12 posted on 10/23/2009 12:00:03 PM PDT by ElectricStrawberry (Didja know that Man walked with vegetarian T. rex within the last 4,351 years?)
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To: Jaxter

LOL!


13 posted on 10/23/2009 12:13:32 PM PDT by LeonardFMason
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To: ElectricStrawberry
My Point is that ‘Why is Nothing Evolving NOW?’
Did it just Stop?
Why are My Lungs in the Same Place as Everyone Else For The Last million Years?
Answer That Brainiacs!
14 posted on 10/23/2009 1:39:48 PM PDT by bravotu (Have a Nice Day !)
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To: <1/1,000,000th%

Why Does This Creature Have to Have Come FROM something Else?
Could it not have Been Created as ‘Itself’ and Then Die Out?
Rather Than a Missing Link, a Quirk ?


15 posted on 10/23/2009 1:44:28 PM PDT by bravotu (Have a Nice Day !)
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To: SeekAndFind
fossil 'link' just a big boner

So would we call that a "soft-tissue fossil" or not?

16 posted on 10/23/2009 1:44:49 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: mnehring

never had a real discussion, huh.


17 posted on 10/23/2009 1:45:37 PM PDT by bravotu (Have a Nice Day !)
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To: ElectricStrawberry

So Name a Positive Change.....


18 posted on 10/23/2009 1:48:45 PM PDT by bravotu (Have a Nice Day !)
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To: bravotu

It was created as itself. But it no longer exists.

However, the fossil record for the time after this organism exists has other organisms similar to it in some ways.

It doesn’t exist in the fossil record proceeding it, but other organisms exist that were similar to it in some ways.

Unless you think the earth is only a few thousand years old, this leads to the idea that it’s a link between these other organisms.

Otherwise it’s just another rock that fell from the moon.

But you didn’t say what you thought it was. Which is what I thought you asked in your post.


19 posted on 10/23/2009 1:53:03 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: bravotu
"never had a real discussion, huh."

A good ice breaker for you to start a real discussion would be something like:
"Why are there still monkeys?"

20 posted on 10/23/2009 4:21:21 PM PDT by Mushinronshasan (insert generic tagline here)
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