Why 'Ida' Inspires Navel-Gazing at Our Ancestry

LiveScience | May. 20, 2009 (Opinion)

One long line of evidence that supports evolution is the ongoing discovery of "transitional" fossils that bridge the gap between one obvious kind of species and another. Nowhere are these transitional animals more interesting than when looking backwards through time at the human lineage.

This week, scientists from the University of Oslo announced the discovery (or re-discovery since the fossil was dug up in 1983) of a 47-million-year-old ... Full Story »

Posted by Glenn LaBauve

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Subjects: Sci/Tech
Topics: Biology, Science
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Posted by: Posted by Glenn LaBauve - May 20, 2009 - 10:12 PM PDT
Reviewed by: Glenn LaBauve (review), Gary Clark (review)
Content Type: Article
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Edited by: Glenn LaBauve - May 20, 2009 - 10:20 PM PDT

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Gary Clark
3.0
 by Gary Clark - May. 21, 2009

I was curious enough to review some other articles on this fossil discovery, and a much better overview is also from LiveScience, May 20, by Clara Moskowitz. It cites a number of varied viewpoints not mentioned in Meridith F. Small's, and notes criticism of the excessive commercial hype of the announcement by the History Channel and related book promotion by Little, Brown. The bottom line is that it's a prime specimen that offers nothing new.

This comes at a time when Darwinian "gradualism" is increasingly doubted as leading to new speciation. Other mechanisms are being sought to explain sudden appearances of new species, rather than searching for the ever elusive "missing links".

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Glenn LaBauve
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 by Glenn LaBauve - May. 20, 2009
Glenn posted this story.
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  • Amid Media Circus, Scientists Doubt 'Ida' Is Your Ancestor

    LiveScience by Clara Moskowitz | May. 20, 2009 (News Report)
    You know science has made it big when the Google homepage logo is changed to celebrate a fossil finding and the mayor of New York shows up at a press conference to unveil it. ...
    Posted by Glenn LaBauve
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