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From: dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Missing Links
Message-ID: <452@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Nov-84 17:47:08 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.452
Posted: Fri Nov  9 17:47:08 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 19:55:24 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: UW Primate Center
Lines: 25


> [Ethan Vishniac]
> 
>      The comment about "missing links" is one that I'm continually
> confused by.  What is a "missing link"?  Presumably something that
> shares some of the characteristics of the forms it is "transitional"
> between.  By that definition an overwhelming number of "missing links"
> have been found.

A missing link is a fossil form that is intermediate between its
predecessors and its descendents.  I'll leave it to you to reply
with the names of the organisms that qualify.

>                   It is as though one were to assert that the
> interval between 0 and 1 was not continuously filled with numbers, but
> that there were "missing links" between the two.  Whenever this
> proposition is confronted with intermediate numbers ( e.g. 0.5, 0.75)
> the argument is modified to include the discovered numbers as 
> delimiters of the missing intervals and the claim is repeated that
> there has been no progress towards uncovering the "missing links".

I will remember this when you reply, and will try not to use this
argument.
-- 
Paul DuBois		{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois