Ancient Fossil Offers Clues To Primate Evolution

langelgjm sends in an update to a story we discussed over the weekend about an extremely well-preserved fossil of an ancient primate, Darwinius masillae, that sheds light on an important area of evolution. The 47 million-year-old specimen has now been officially unveiled, and while many media outlets are stumbling over themselves with phrases like "missing link" and "holy grail," it's clearly a very impressive find. "Discovered two years ago, the exquisitely preserved specimen is not a direct ancestor of monkeys and humans, but hints at what such an ancestor might have looked like. According to researchers, 'The specimen has an unusual history: it was privately collected and sold in two parts, with only the lesser part previously known. The second part, which has just come to light, shows the skeleton to be the most complete primate known in the fossil record.' The scientific article describing the find was published yesterday in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal PLoS ONE. Google's home page is also celebrating the find with a unique image." Science blogger Brian Switek offers some criticism of the academic paper and the media swarm, saying, "I would have hoped that this fossil would receive the care and attention it deserves, but for now it looks like a cash cow for the History Channel. Indeed, this association may not have only presented overblown claims to the public, but hindered good science, as well."

Comments

Nigger Bones

[Anonymous Coward]

I find niger bones laying on the street in Houston all the time.

Silly niggers. Always killing eachother and hoopin and hollarin.

Evolution is real -- even for modern man.

[Anonymous Coward]

Evolution is real and did not simply stop at the appearance of homo sapiens.

Consider the case of Ashkenazim Jews. Centuries of discrimination forced this ethnic Jewish group to evolve to adapt. In this case, adaption meant increasing intelligence. Albert Einstein is an Ashkenazim Jew.

By extrapolation, we can say that different races (and ethnic groups) have different levels of intelligence. For example, there are clearly differences in intelligence between Africans and, say, Japanese. The Africans turned a bounty of natural resources into abject poverty. By contrast, the Japanese turned a barren rock (that was devastated by 2 atomic bombs) into the 2nd wealthiest nation on earth.

Note that Japan is not in Europe. Note that the quality of life in Thailand (of all places) is better than the whole of Africa. There are substantial differences in intelligence between the Africans and both the Japanese and the Thai. Note that both Thailand and Japan have inhospitable geographies afflicted with things like earthquakes and the occasional tsunami.

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

[Moridineas]

Afrikan? Really? I've met plenty of Africans who use the standard spelling...who exactly uses a new spelling?

This was all prior to the 1990s when all those Afrikan runners started winning marathons

I could be wrong, but I believe the Kenyan domination of longer distance events started earlier, like in the 60s/70s?

In any case, it seems difficult to argue that there isn't something innate in some African peoples that make them better runners than others.

We all do work with what we have. We don't all have the same things to work with though! I could train my whole life and not be a championship marathoner.

Creationists have responded

[ColonelPanic]

Christians know that "it was a small, tailed, probably tree-climbing, and now extinct primateâ"from a kind created on Day 6 of Creation Week."

You know, I'd hate evolution too, if it had done to me what it has done to the godtards.

Creationism

[Pirate Balloon]

I'm sure this'll settle the debate.