Major Finds Summary
Missing link is a transitional specimen that has characteristics of two diverse species (eg. Archaeopteryx has features of both birds and dinosaurs). Where would you find this on a cladogram?
Major Find / SummaryArchaeopteryx – Missing Link / · Oldest known bird, means “Ancient Wing”
· Transition/link between birds and dinosaurs:
· Birds - feathers and hollow bones
· Dinosaur – teeth, skull
· Late Jurassic
· First specimen found in Germany 1861; in fine-grained sediment so preserved great detail
Burgess Shale / · Location: Canadian Rockies, black shale
· Exceptionally preserved soft-bodied fossils, especially Trilobites
· Mid-Cambrian
· Discovered by Charles Walcott in 1909
· Stephen J Gould made famous in book “Wonderful Life” (in the school library)
· Includes “bizarre” fossils finds of which there are no modern equivalents (Hallucegenia)
Ediacaran Fauna / · Pre-Cambrian fossil finds in Australia, Newfoundland and UK (Leicester – Charnwood Forest)
· Prior to “Cambrian Explosion” of life at 550
· Directly follows the Snowball Earth event at 600 Ma
· Represent the earliest-known complex multicellular organisms
· Exceptionally preserved soft-bodies fossils, precursors to trilobites
· First found in 1868 but not recognised as Pre-Cambrian until 1957 when Chania was found in Leicester
Lucy – Missing Link / · Earliest Hominid ever found (Australopithecus afarensis)
· Link between humans and apes
· Apes - small skull akin to apes
· Humans - bipedal
· Lived 3.2 Ma ago in Ethiopia
· Found in 1973 by an international team headed by Donal Johanson, included Mary Leakey
· The British Leakey family are famous for their ancient human fossil finds
Ida – Missing Link ?
Recent Discovery / · Primate 47 Ma found in 1983 in Germany
· Link between lower primates (lemurs) and higher primates (apes, monkeys, humans):
· Lower Primates – wet nose
· Higher Primates – lower talus bone, fingernails not claws
· The best and most complete fossil primate ever found
· Fossil includes body tissues (including hair) and her final meal
· Hailed as a missing link in 2008, debate rages on whether it is a true “missing link”