Skepticism About the New "Missing Link" Fossil

Re:Skepticism About the New "Missing Link" Fossil by sdurkin on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @05:44AM (#618296)

Very true, DNA evidence alone conclusively demonstrates the truth of evolution. However, DNA alone cannot tell you the path through which humans arose.

This path is called the phylogenetic tree. Fossils help fill in the gaps in the tree, and clarify any ambiguities from genetic comparisons.

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Re:Skepticism About the New "Missing Link" Fossil by gort on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @06:03AM (#618305)

I'm not sure I understand you perfectly.

A phylogenetic tree (which is essentially a family tree, but for multiple species or even all of life) can certainly be constructed on the basis of DNA alone.

But I guess you mean it won't tell us (for example) what our ancestor 100 million years ago looked like, which is true enough.

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Re:Skepticism About the New "Missing Link" Fossil by sdurkin on Sunday May 24, 2009 @12:59PM (#624479)

You're quite right. I apologize for my vagueness. Excellent clarification :)

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