Difference between revisions of "Missing link"

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"Missing link" is the term used to indicate a missing stage in the evolution of a species. The theory of evolution by natural selection claims that each species has evolved from another by insensible stages. Therefore, a continuous record of transitional forms should exist from the earlier form to the current form, each almost indistinguishable from those immediately before and after. Where such a transitional form is absent, it is referred to colloquially as a "missing link".
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'''"Missing link"''' is the term used to indicate a hypothesized missing stage in the [[Theory of evolution|evolution]] of a species. The theory of evolution by natural selection claims that each species has evolved from another in a step-by-step manner. Therefore, a continuous record of transitional forms should exist from the earlier form to the current form, each almost indistinguishable from those immediately before and after. Where such a transitional form is absent, it is referred to colloquially as a "missing link".
  
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Missing transitional forms are a serious obstacle for the theory of evolution. Some 100 million fossils are stored in museums around the world, and yet no fossil has ever been found to be intermediate between two species. Since there are estimated to be about 100 million species in existence, and since evolutionists assert that a species last on average about 1 million years, clearly there is at least one fossil for every 200 species. So why are the transitions between species not exhaustively recorded?
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Many evolutionists consider the challenge to find missing links to be a [[Catch-22]]. This is because each missing link that is found creates two more new missing links. Thus the challenge can never be satisfied.
  
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Instead, when a fossil cannot clearly be assigned to a known species, scientists generate a new species to accommodate the new specimen. This has the obvious consequence that two more missing links exist, where once there was one. As a result, since Darwin first proposed his theory, the number of missing links has actually grown. Where in his time there was a single missing link between fish and amphibians, now there are dozens. Where there was one alleged missing link between apes and humans, not there are at least twenty. Clearly the number of missing links is increasing with ever new "intermediate" discovery and Darwin's credibility is being degraded over time, reductio ad absurdum.
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Often the term missing link refers to the long-sought [[Fossils|fossil]] that would show a species intermediate between humans and apes. Many candidates have been proposed, such as [[Piltdown Man]] (since shown to be a fake) and [[Lucy]]. Some people believe that Lucy (a fossil found in East Africa) was an ape-like human ancestor three million years ago. Lucy is believed not to be the missing link and are part of the australopithecines (neither human nor ape) by Answers in Genesis. In addition, the fossil is incomplete.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v12/n3/lucy</ref>
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Clearly, eventually a set of "intermediates" will be found spanning the entire course of the "evolution" of a species from another, at which point it can be seen that the entire alleged sequence consists of missing links, and at no point will a species exist which can be seen not to belong unambiguously to a species, whether the first, last or some species name invented to accommodate an "intermediate" stage.
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==See also==
 
==See also==
 
*[[Transitional form]]
 
*[[Transitional form]]
  
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[[Category:Science]]
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*[[Transitional fossil]]
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[[Category:Biology]]
 
[[Category:Biology]]
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[[Category:Paleontology]]
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==References==
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<references/>http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v12/n3/lucy<references/>

Latest revision as of 12:51, June 23, 2016

"Missing link" is the term used to indicate a hypothesized missing stage in the evolution of a species. The theory of evolution by natural selection claims that each species has evolved from another in a step-by-step manner. Therefore, a continuous record of transitional forms should exist from the earlier form to the current form, each almost indistinguishable from those immediately before and after. Where such a transitional form is absent, it is referred to colloquially as a "missing link".

Many evolutionists consider the challenge to find missing links to be a Catch-22. This is because each missing link that is found creates two more new missing links. Thus the challenge can never be satisfied.

Often the term missing link refers to the long-sought fossil that would show a species intermediate between humans and apes. Many candidates have been proposed, such as Piltdown Man (since shown to be a fake) and Lucy. Some people believe that Lucy (a fossil found in East Africa) was an ape-like human ancestor three million years ago. Lucy is believed not to be the missing link and are part of the australopithecines (neither human nor ape) by Answers in Genesis. In addition, the fossil is incomplete.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v12/n3/lucy
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v12/n3/lucy
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