The Rational Skeptic

Fossil discovery: key missing link in human evolution? May 10, 2009

A complete skeleton of an extinct primate called, adapid, has been discovered in Germany’s Messel Shale Pit. The discovery was made by the Public Library of Science, a leading academic journal with offices in Cambridge and San Francisco.

The co-author Philip Gingerich commented on the reason for delaying publication: We have kept it under wraps because you can’t blither about something until you understand it. We now understand it. It is going to advance our knowledge of evolution.’

 There is much speculation over this new discovery, because it could lead researchers to a missing link in primate evolution, and specifically human evolution. Regardless, science notoriously brings the goods. So, if this fossil shows us nothing in relation to human evolution we can be quite sure that sooner or later science will come up with discoveries that answer this and countless other profound questions.