Missing Links Found

Since creationists still like to complain about all the "missing links" they imagine in the fossil record, I decided to post some of the most famous, recently discovered "transitional" species.

The "Link" Between Fish and Amphibians: Tiktaalik roseae

This creature lived around 375 million years ago, and it has an almost perfect mix of fish and amphibian features. The fossils were found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian arctic.

Some "Links" Between Hippos and Whales

Genetic studies show that the land animals most closely related to whales are hippos. Fossils found in Pakistan over the past 20 years give an almost complete sequence from hippo-like animals to true whales. Above, Skeleton and reconstruction of Ambulocetus natans. Based on the structure of the skull and neck bones, this animal was a cetacean, but it had large legs with bones strong enough to support its weight. It lived about 50 million years ago.

Rodhocetus. This animal lived about 46 million years ago. It is clearly more like a whale than Ambulocetus, and its fossils are found in marine sediments, indicating that it spent time in deep water.

Basilosaurus, about 40 million years ago. This animal -- mistaken for a dinosaur when it was found, hence the name -- is clearly a whale, a full-time marine creature, but with features of land life no modern whale has, like developed hind limbs. Creationists used to mock the notion that whales could have evolved from land animals, but this is now one of the most complete evolutionary sequences.

The "Link" Between Humans and Chimps: Australopithecus afarensis

The species of the famous "Lucy" fossil, with a chimp-sized brain but fully upright gait and useful hands.

Australopithecus afarensis lived in Africa between 3.9 million and 2.9 million years ago. They are recognizably somewhere between humans and chimpanzees. And they are only part of a chain of fossils that extends from even more apelike forms through Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and archaic Homo sapiens to us. The notion that there is a "missing link" between humans and apes is fatuous.