Scientists Discover Common Ancestor of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

reporter writes "According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, scientists have discovered the common ancestor of monkeys, apes, and Slashdotters. The 47 million year old fossils were discovered in Germany. The ancestor physically resembles today's lemur. Quoting: 'The skeleton will be unveiled at New York City's American Museum of Natural History next Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and an international team involved in the discovery. According to Prof. Gingerich, the fossilized remains are of a young female adapid. The skeleton was unearthed by collectors about two years ago and has been kept tightly under wraps since then, in an unusual feat of scientific secrecy. Prof. Gingerich said he had twice examined the adapid skeleton, which was "a complete, spectacular fossil." The completeness of the preserved skeleton is crucial, because most previously found fossils of ancient primates were small finds, such as teeth and jawbones.'"

Comments

Oh this is gonna be fun :)

[DavidChristopher]

Trying to learn what we don't know is how we grow.

I found the missing link a little while ago though- I had a conversation over coffee a couple of weeks ago with someone who turned out to be a creationist. We ended up having the dreaded creationism-vs-darwinism "discussion". The gentleman in question was extremely stubborn, and his coffin-nail-arguement against darwinism, believe it or not, was that there was "no proof of evolution". I spewed trying to contain my laughter. Needless to say, the conversation ended at that point quite abruptly.

A fascinating discovery though.

Re:Oh this is gonna be fun :)

[mevets]

Give him time. I once believed in creationism, but slowly, over time, I changed. Now I believe in evolution.

Slashdotters?

[Niris]

Slashdotters aren't human, you insensitive clod. Humans are social animals, we on the other hand, are not.

Re:Slashdotters?

[gyrogeerloose]

Not true. We're social, but only with our own kind. For instance, I saw the new Star Trek movie last night. When the house lights went up afterwards, I looked around and noticed the kids had already left and those who remained were my fellow nerds. It was so obvious that we all kind of laughed about it on the way out of the theater.

Re:In Germany????

[couchslug]

"Is this a revolutionary finding? Shouldn't the common ancestors be in Africa?"

If this is really a common ancestor of Slashdotters, the maternal basement/cave will be nearby and yield further clues.

Re:In Germany????

[spun]

No he's not confusing anything. These lemur-like creatures were the nerds of their day. Of course they lived in maternal basement caves. Look at their eyes, man. Probably hopped up on Mountain Cacao Pods all the time. They invented the net, and spent all their time trying to find interesting things to put in their nets.

Sadly, this race of proto-nerds did not survive, as the males of the species were singularly unattractive to the females and they were unable to procreate.

This is old news

[Dachannien]

We've actually known about Rosie O'Donnell for some time now.

Re:Evolution is real -- even for modern man.

[Hognoxious]

Otherwise, women would seem extremely inferior to men in science, which is not true because I know countless women who perform better than men academically.

You should ask one of them to explain "anecdotal evidence" to you. Then maybe some statistics, including significance levels and sampling theory.

Re:In Germany????

[spun]

Okay, maybe they died out because they had no sense of humor.

and slashdotters to?

[porky_pig_jr]

Then the only appropriate classificaiton name would be "Cowardus Anonymous Vulgaris".

Re:creationism/evolution

[93 Escort Wagon]

(Boy, is this going to cost me karma...)

Hey, would you mind if I borrowed that next time I want to get modded up? Thanks!