234:
27:
158:
175:, the idea of "lower animals" representing earlier stages in evolution lingered, as demonstrated in Ernst Haeckel's figure of the human pedigree. While the vertebrates were then seen as forming a sort of evolutionary sequence, the various classes were distinct, the undiscovered intermediate forms being called "missing links".
97:
of higher and lower animals, the Great Chain of Being was created during the
Medieval period in Europe and was strongly influenced by religious thought. God was at the top of the chain followed by man and then animals. It was during the 18th century that the set nature of species and their immutable
61:
The term "missing link" has been supported by geneticists since evolutionary trees only have data at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference and not evidence of fossils. However, it has fallen out of favor with anthropologists because it implies the evolutionary process is a
197:
The search for a fossil that connected man and ape was unproductive until the Dutch paleontologist Eugene Dubois went to
Indonesia. Between 1886 and 1895 Dubois discovered remains that he later described as "an intermediate species between humans and monkeys". He named the hominin
98:
place in the great chain was questioned. The dual nature of the chain, divided yet united, had always allowed for seeing creation as essentially one continuous whole, with the potential for overlap between the links. Radical thinkers like
206:
In the media, the Java Man was hailed as the missing link. For instance, the headline of the
Philadelphia Inquirer on February 3, 1895, was "The Missing Link: A Dutch Surgeon in Java Unearths the Needed Specimen".
42:. It is often used in popular science and in the media for any new transitional form. The term originated to describe the intermediate form in the evolutionary series of anthropoid ancestors to
182:("ape-man lacking speech"). Haeckel claimed the origin of humanity was to be found in Asia. He theorized that the missing link was to be found on the lost continent of
497:
102:
saw a progression of life forms from the simplest creatures striving towards complexity and perfection, a schema accepted by zoologists like
145:
186:
located in the Indian Ocean. He believed that
Lemuria was the home of the first humans and that Asia was the home of many of the earliest
169:(i.e. humans) through a series of lower forms. In his view, lower animals were simply newcomers on the evolutionary scene. After Darwin's
430:
The great chain of being : a study of the history of an idea : the
William James lectures delivered at Harvard University, 1933
123:
538:
A Manual of
Elementary Geology: Or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, as Illustrated by Geological Monuments
721:
p. 41: "A recent reassessment of cladistic and functional evidence concluded that there are few, if any, grounds for retaining
515:
128:
409:
293:
in 1917. Later, the original classification proved to be a mistake, and was retracted in 1927. It was never widely accepted.
729:, and recommended that the material be transferred (or, for some, returned) to Australopithecus (Wood & Collard, 1999)."
178:
Haeckel claimed that human evolution occurred in 24 stages and that the 23rd stage was a theoretical missing link he named
93:
who thought of humans as links in the Great Chain of Being, a hierarchical structure of all matter and life. Influenced by
190:; he thus supported that Asia was the cradle of hominid evolution. Haeckel argued that humans were closely related to the
165:
Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck envisioned that life is generated in the form of the simplest creatures constantly, and then strive
750:
69:
There is no singular missing link. The scarcity of transitional fossils can be attributed to the incompleteness of the
275:: A set of bones found in 1912 thought to be the "missing link" between ape and man. Eventually revealed to be a hoax.
216:
66:
is preferred since this does not have the connotation of linear evolution, as evolution is a branching process.
437:
94:
20:
660:
63:
461:
Appel, T. A. (1980). "Henri De
Blainville and the Animal Series: A Nineteenth-Century Chain of Being".
106:. The very idea of an ordering of organisms, even if supposedly fixed, laid the basis for the idea of
43:
745:
501:
171:
107:
30:
A symbolic portrayal of human evolution, showing developmental stages as a matter of illustration.
347:
336:
286:
143:. It was used as a name for transitional types between different taxa was in 1863, in Lyell's
99:
90:
606:
306:
82:
51:
8:
282:
183:
103:
39:
698:
610:
556:
536:
131:, which uses the term in an evolutionary context relating to gaps in the fossil record.
707:
682:
637:
594:
519:
478:
398:
712:
642:
624:
443:
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244:
Among the famous fossil finds credited as the "missing link" in human evolution are:
140:
121:
The earliest publication that explicitly uses the term “missing link” was in 1844 in
482:
702:
694:
632:
614:
470:
369:
220:
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in 1922, on the basis of a tooth found by rancher and geologist Harold Cook in
224:
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of
Southeast Asia and rejected Darwin's hypothesis of human origins in Africa.
111:
86:
62:
linear phenomenon and that forms originate consecutively in a chain. Instead,
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628:
575:
552:
447:
132:
70:
619:
716:
646:
313:
278:
272:
228:
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55:
50:). The term was influenced by the pre-Darwinian evolutionary theory of the
47:
233:
296:
248:
661:"The Missing Link: A Dutch Surgeon in Java Unearths the Needed Specimen"
351:: A series of skeletons discovered in South Africa between 2008 and 2010
474:
265:): Discovered by Eugene Dubois in 1891 in Indonesia. Originally named
210:
26:
115:
135:
employed the term a few years later in 1851 in his third edition of
290:
258:
237:
58:) that simple organisms are more primitive than complex organisms.
309:: Probably ancestral to Homo sapiens & Homo neanderthalensis.
191:
187:
157:
139:
too as a metaphor for the missing gaps in the continuity of the
152:
81:
The term "missing link" was influenced by the 18th-century
680:
595:"Darwin and the recent African origin of modern humans"
317:(described in 1964) has features intermediate between
303:): Discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924 in South Africa.
343:): Discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia
202:(erect ape-man), which has now been reclassified as
397:
370:"missing link | evolutionary theory | Britannica"
737:
599:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
558:The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man
514:
161:Haeckel's Chain of the Animal Ancestors of Man
563:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.
391:
389:
16:Non-scientific term for a transitional fossil
683:"Human evolution: taxonomy and paleobiology"
146:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man
521:Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
240:, the original "missing link" found in Java
124:Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
386:
706:
636:
618:
400:Missing Links: In Search of Human Origins
211:Famous "missing links" in human evolution
153:Historical beliefs about the missing link
681:Wood and Richmond; Richmond, BG (2000).
232:
156:
25:
574:
424:
738:
395:
592:
551:
534:
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76:
699:10.1046/j.1469-7580.2000.19710019.x
13:
495:
14:
762:
463:Journal of the History of Biology
167:towards complexity and perfection
593:Klein, Richard G. (2009-09-22).
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653:
586:
217:List of human evolution fossils
568:
545:
528:
508:
489:
454:
418:
362:
1:
518:; Ireland, Alexander (1884).
355:
54:and the now-outdated notion (
432:. Harvard University Press.
325:, and its classification in
7:
535:Lyell, Sir Charles (1851).
404:. Oxford University Press.
255:): A sibling human species.
38:" is a recently-discovered
10:
767:
498:"The Great Chain of Being"
341:Australopithecus afarensis
301:Australopithecus africanus
214:
44:anatomically modern humans
18:
751:Gaps in the fossil record
172:On the Origin of Species
108:transmutation of species
620:10.1073/pnas.0908719106
524:. W. & R. Chambers.
348:Australopithecus sediba
267:Pithecanthropus erectus
200:Pithecanthropus erectus
287:Henry Fairfield Osborn
241:
180:Pithecanthropus alalus
162:
31:
668:Philadelphia Inquirer
396:Reader, John (2011).
253:Homo neanderthalensis
236:
215:Further information:
160:
100:Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
91:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
29:
580:The Evolution of Man
333:has been questioned.
64:last common ancestor
52:Great Chain of Being
19:For other uses, see
670:. February 3, 1895.
611:2009PNAS..10616007K
605:(38): 16007–16009.
137:Elements of Geology
104:Henri de Blainville
40:transitional fossil
687:Journal of Anatomy
553:Lyell, Sir Charles
475:10.1007/bf00125745
426:Lovejoy, Arthur O.
374:www.britannica.com
242:
163:
95:Aristotle's theory
77:Historical origins
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411:978-0-19-927685-1
141:geological column
85:thinkers such as
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516:Chambers, Robert
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500:. Archived from
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331:Australopithecus
319:Australopithecus
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746:Human evolution
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693:(Pt 1): 19–60.
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561:. John Murray.
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221:Pithecanthropus
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129:Robert Chambers
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576:Haeckel, Ernst
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504:on 2017-07-28.
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469:(2): 291–319.
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307:Heidelberg Man
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281:: Originally
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225:Archaic humans
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112:Charles Darwin
110:, for example
87:Alexander Pope
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133:Charles Lyell
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114:'s theory of
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83:Enlightenment
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502:the original
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377:. Retrieved
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364:
346:
340:
330:
329:rather than
326:
323:Homo erectus
322:
318:
314:Homo habilis
312:
300:
279:Nebraska Man
273:Piltdown Man
266:
263:Homo erectus
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229:Homo habilis
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68:
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56:orthogenesis
48:hominization
36:Missing link
35:
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21:Missing Link
496:Snyder, S.
297:Taung Child
249:Neanderthal
740:Categories
723:H. habilis
439:0674361539
379:2021-11-30
356:References
629:0027-8424
541:. Murray.
448:432702791
283:described
116:evolution
717:10999270
647:19805251
578:(1874).
555:(1863).
483:83708471
428:(1964).
291:Nebraska
259:Java Man
238:Java Man
192:primates
188:primates
708:1468107
638:2752521
607:Bibcode
184:Lemuria
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227:, and
664:(PDF)
479:S2CID
727:Homo
713:PMID
643:PMID
625:ISSN
444:OCLC
434:ISBN
406:ISBN
337:Lucy
327:Homo
321:and
89:and
725:in
703:PMC
695:doi
691:197
633:PMC
615:doi
603:106
471:doi
127:by
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388:^
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46:(
34:"
23:.
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