Missing Link and Human Progressions Question

Quoted message said:

Hi folks, I am trying to learn more about the so called "missing link". Are there any good websites
on this subject?

Here's one that you may find interesting:

everyweek.comNews.aspOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Also, I am looking for a history of human evolution, any good websites for that info as well?

Jokes aside, here's a website that you may find valuable:

becominghuman.orgbecominghuman.orgOpen ↗

Wirt Atmar

Chris said:

Hi folks, I am trying to learn more about the so called "missing link". Are there any good
websites on this subject? Also, I am looking for a history of human evolution, any good websites
for that info as well?

This is a good website anthro.palomar.eduphysical.htmOpen ↗

Topics 13-16 deal with human evolution

--
Adam Retchless to send me email, replace “seven” with “7” in my reply-to address.

Quoted message said:

I am trying to learn more about the so called "missing>link".

The first thing to note is that the notion of a"missing link" is that the entire concept is based on
the conjecture of humans being desended from either extant or extinct great apes. Since this did not
happen missing links are likely to remain missing for a very long time.

TWINBLUE

In article <[email hidden]>,

TWINBLUE said:

Quoted message said:

I am trying to learn more about the so called "missing>link".

The first thing to note is that the notion of a"missing link" is that the entire concept is based
on the conjecture of humans being desended from either extant or extinct great apes. Since this did
not happen missing links are likely to remain missing for a very long time.

This is a mistaken view. Several decades ago, it was believed that the humans split off from the
lineage leading to great apes near its base -- that the tree was:
(human,(gibbon,(orang,(gorilla,(chimp,pygmychimp)))) Under this view apes and we shared a common
ancestor but this was not the common ancestor shared by all apes, hence it was not an ape, though it
might have looked similar to one.

At least since the molecular work by Morris Goodman and Allan Wilson in the 1960's, humans have been
shown to be in the group of African apes. Since further work by Charles Sibley and others in the
1980's, we have been shown to be more closely related to chimps than to gorillas. The tree is:
((gibbon,(orang,(gorilla,(human,(chimp,pygmychimp))))

Thus our ancestors were apes. Furthermore, we are not merely descended from apes, we actually are
apes right now.

As for the "missing link", that phrase was common among scientists a century ago, and it was even
sometimes used half a century ago. But as the relevance of the discovery of Australopithecus fossils
sank in, and more different ones were found, it faded away, except on newsgroups. We'd like to have
more fossils from around the split between humans and chimps, but I doubt that you'll find any
paleoanthropologist talking of the "missing link".

--
Joe Felsenstein [email hidden] Department of Genome Sciences, University of
Washington, Box 357730, Seattle, WA 98195-7730 USA