The “Missing Link” Was Not a Human Ancestor As Previously Claimed

March 3rd, 2010

Two papers by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University and the University of Chicago, say that the “Missing Link” fossils thought to have been early primates are actually lemurs.

The article published in the Journal of Human Evolution and dumbed down for us mortals here four scientists present evidence that the 47-million-year-old Darwinius masillae is not a primate like humans, apes and monkeys, as the 2009 research claimed.

What does this mean? Creationists win! Sorry, had to do it. To me it means literally nothing other than it gives crazy people something to hang their hats on. Time to check your
home security systems to make sure they stay outside.

“Many lines of evidence indicate that Darwinius has nothing at all to do with human evolution,” says Chris Kirk, associate professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. “Every year, scientists describe new fossils that contribute to our understanding of primate evolution. What’s amazing about Darwinius is, despite the fact that it’s nearly complete, it tells us very little that we didn’t already know from fossils of closely related species.”

His co-authors are anthropologists Blythe Williams and Richard Kay of Duke and evolutionary biologist Callum Ross of the University of Chicago. Williams, Kay and Kirk also collaborated on a related article about to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that reviews the early fossil record and anatomical features of anthropoids — the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans.