Comments on: Old Apes and Bad Links

By: Darwinius: It delivers a pizza, and it lengthens, and it strengthens, and it finds that slipper that’s been at large under the chaise lounge for several weeks… | The Loom | Discover Magazine

Tue, 19 May 2009 22:02:17 +0000

[...] For some reason reporters (and apparently television producers) are obsessed with the idea, as I wrote about long ago when another primate fossil was touted in a similar fashion. Newly discovered [...]

By: Steve Reuland

Steve Reuland — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 17:54:47 +0000

Small correction:

“Today, Ira Glass on Science Friday asked his paleoanthropologist guest whether the fossil is a missing link…”

You mean Ira Flatow. Ira Glass hosts This American Life.

By: vernaculo

vernaculo — Sun, 21 Nov 2004 06:06:35 +0000

Aaron- Thank you for that genteel “Er…”; but it is a chain I think.
An ape there, a man here, and a series of connected “links” between them, though time makes it look more triangular than linear. Because Wilberforce and his heirs reduce it to a mere three, one at each end and the missing one in the middle – and then throw it away as nonsense – doesn’t make it not a chain, in that context. That the evolutionary flow looks more like a river delta or a mountainside in actuality is beside the point.
As far as ancestry and simian cousinhood go, it’s the connectivity that’s most germane, the linkage if you will.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 21 Nov 2004 05:36:12 +0000

“Well, if it’s a chain, everybody on it’s a link, right?”

Er… well, I assume you know it’s not a chain, but I figured I should make sure.

By: vernaculo

vernaculo — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:39:26 +0000

Well, if it’s a chain, everybody on it’s a link, right? So anybody whose link is missing from the record is a missing link?
But the term comes from the denial that was so virulent, as the truth of our origins became impossible to refute. Wilberforce’s homeboys demanding something precisely between themselves and existent apes such as chimps and gorillas. Half-man half-monkey, wugga wugga. Something to look down on, and discard.
But – again – it’s a chain of being, of changing being isn’t it?
Phylogeny and ontogeny being somewhat parallel – where’s the missing link between our adult selves and our childhood selves? Spread through every day of our lives since then.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 04:49:16 +0000

Howdy, Excellent point about "the" missing link bit. It wouldn't kill reporters to ask questions like "We understand that it's impossible to tell whether or not a fossil is direct lineal ancestor of humans, so, Mr. Scientist, do you think this fossil was close, or far, from the line that led to humans?" I'm convinced, however, that many science journalism stories are written using The All-Purpose Template for Scientific Press Releases and Science News Articles. PS: You mean Ira Flatow of Science Friday, not Ira Glass of This American Life. For some reason the only two people I've ever heard of named Ira work for NPR. Yours in pedantry, Nick

By: Carl Buell

Carl Buell — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 00:26:54 +0000

The real “missing link” appears to be the one between scientists (their actual ideas and information) and the lay public. Nice article Carl, hopefully a few science “correspondents” will read it!

By: Sarah Berel-Harrop

Sarah Berel-Harrop — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:03:00 +0000

No, it’s not Meyers, it’s Mairz. I think. Maybe it is Mahers. Or Myers. No, definitely not Myers. Not in a million years. (forgive, that is a talk.origins standard. Cannot resist.)