By Erich Vieth on May 19th, 2009
47 million year old primate fossil
Some scientists are touting a 47 million year old primate fossil as potentially being a direct ancestor of humans, though they admit that there is a lot more work to do before making that conclusion with certitude. What is not in dispute is that this lemur-like fossil is extremely well preserved.
- Bad news for Creationists: archeologists have discovered yet another transitional fossil
- For $1 million, would you agree to eat nothing but dog food for one year?
- Creationism vs Logic: Gaming the gaps in the fossil record
- How to find an elusive transitional fossil - the story of Tiktaalik
- What does it mean to be a primate? One of many paths through the phylogenetic tree.
Errr, with the rate of dumbing down some sections of the human population try to inflict on themselves I guess it won’t take another 47My for them to regress to a proto ape state
Paultje: Let’s not reinforce the misconception that evolution has direction; up or forward or toward overall “better” design. That is one of the powerful tools of counterknowledge used by the anti-science crowd to “prove” via common sense that evolution “up to” man is unlikely to the point of certainly impossible. Never mind the ever-growing mountain of evidence that it did happen.
When intelligence (big brains) proves to be more of a cost than an asset, it will probably breed out. Same for the various cases opposable thumbs rather than a fifth parallel reinforcing finger.
Or our awkward feet may “regress” to a more useful hand, or finish developing toward a better paw, or faster hoof. Which of these three is “better”? Depends on what you need it for.