Here’s an article (Columbus Dispatch => Discovery of Evolutionary Link Was a Scientific Inevitiability) that not only dismisses the significance of the recent discovery of Tiktaalik Roseae but makes me feel good about it at the same time.
Tiktaalik Roseae is one of those “missing links” we’re always hearing so much about. These are transitional animal forms not yet discovered in the fossil record. Critics (note that I didn’t say “serious” critics) of Paleontology sometimes argue that without these missing links, the Theory of Evolution is just speculation without evidence. This is nonsense designed to cloud the fact that we have collected thousands if not millions of data points in Paleontology, Geology, Physics, Biology, Molecular Biology and a host of other scientific fields supporting it.
Many such “missing links” have been found over the years. Each time one is found, the gaps in the record get smaller and the “missing links” just move to the gaps. There will always be gaps because, without every single skeleton of every animal that ever lived there will always be a little shadow in the corner that someone can try to drag up and claim renders everything else discovered before anomalous.
Pelontologists knew that Tiktaalik Roseae had to be out there somewhere. They knew roughly where it had to be (in time) and they went searching for it and found it. This certainly is not meant to diminish the work that went into the task, because I’m certain it was an impressive feat, but the initial implication is that they essentially “proved” something that was already well-known.
Here’s to Tiktaalik Roseae for coming out of the shadows!
(Note:, OK, OK, the article in the Columbus Dispatch doesn’t really dismiss the significance of the discovery.)
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