Quote:
Originally Posted by PonyPotato
Personally, I would argue that we will never find a "true" missing link between apes/monkeys/humans because the way that evolution occurs means that a single identifiable species that split into three different lines (or even two distinct lines) may not actually exist, and probably will not exist in the very limited fossil record.
It's most likely that a species of early primate split into two populations, each of those populations undergoing changes that eventually led to apes and humans as two distinct ends. The phases in between may or may not be distinct - it's likely that the two populations were capable of interbreeding for a while, though appearing to be distinct species (especially by that standard by which we must classify species in fossils), but eventually one group became isolated enough to evolve differently.
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Pretty much agree. Evolution just doesn't work as neatly as the newspapers would like.