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There is no such thing as "missing" links. We have a theory about descent with modification, and we have a theory about the age of the earth and together they

There is no such thing as "missing" links. We have a theory about descent with modification, and we have a theory about the age of the earth and together they make useful predictions about where you are likely to find bones similar to older and younger bones. So far these theories have not been falsified. Missing links on the other hand, are pure media made up, attention grabbing fud.

nollidge 17y ago
To be clear, us and chimps do have a common ancestor which links us, although that's true of any two extant species of any kind of life on the planet, not just us and chimps. To describe that particular specimen as "missing" is accurate, but it's a rather melodramatic adjective - it's not like we need that one specific specimen in order to discover anything about our relationship to chimps (or whatever else). So really, "missing link" is just a headline-grabbing way of saying "common ancestor that we haven't dug up yet (and probably never will because fossils are extremely rare)". Regardless, Ardi does not "disprove" a missing link in any way, shape, or form. Ardi does not invalidate the theory that there is a common ancestor between us and chimps; she merely shows that it probably doesn't look like we think it does. Until now, scientists figured the common ancestor looked more like a chimp than a human; now we know that's probably not the case.