fossil...not

The primate fossil “Ida”: the science and the hype
By William Moore
13 June 2009
The recently announced discovery of a remarkably well-preserved early primate fossil promises to provide important new insights into the evolution of a wide range of later primate forms, including humans. However, the theatrics accompanying this announcement to the public have tended to both distort the find’s significance and reinforce widespread, but mistaken, concepts regarding the processes of biological evolution.

The fossil known as "Ida" (From PLoS One).
The specimen, which is dated at 47 million years ago, was first found in 1983 at the Messel Shale Pit, a stone quarry near Darmstadt, Germany. However, a significant fragment of the fossil remained in private hands until only two years ago, when it was acquired by Jörn H. Hurum, a paleontologist at the University of Oslo. The purchase price may have been as much as a million dollars. Once the pieces were reunited, this unusual fossil underwent detailed study leading to the interpretation that it represents a species that was close to the evolutionary split between so-called lower primates (Prosimians), including lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers, and higher primates (Anthropoids), including monkeys, apes, and humans.
The “Ida” fossil, so nicknamed after the principal researcher’s young daughter, is an extremely well-preserved specimen, including not only nearly the entire skeleton (missing a portion of one lower limb), but impressions of some soft parts (including fur) and even stomach contents, evidence of its last meal. The animal had not reached adulthood, as indicated by the presence of both deciduous (i.e., baby) and adult teeth.
Ida exhibits such uniquely primate features as opposable thumbs and fingernails rather than claws. Its general appearance would have resembled a combination of small monkey and lemur. The specimen is formally designated Darwinius masillae, a new genus and species. The genus name honors Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The species name refers to the location of its discovery. By tradition, taxonomic names are Latinized.
The public announcement of this discovery has taken the form of what can only be described as a public relations blitz including multiple press conferences (one involving the billionaire mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, at the American Museum of Natural History), a television special (aired on the History Channel in the US and on the BBC), a popular book, and an overwhelming amount of hype and grandiose statements about the unparalleled importance of this fossil to the understanding of human evolution. Indeed, it is being referred to by its hucksters as a (or even the) “missing link” in human evolution. The television program and the book are, not to make too fine a point of it, both named “The Link.”
The tenor of this media circus can be exemplified by a couple of quotes from the Guardian newspaper:
“This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of all the mammals; with cows and sheep, and elephants and anteaters,” said Sir David Attenborough who is narrating a BBC documentary on the find.
“The 47m-year-old primate—named Ida—has been hailed as the fossil equivalent of a “Rosetta Stone” for understanding the critical early stages of primate evolution.”
Many in the scientific community have given Ida a cooler reception. For example, Elwyn Simons of Duke University, a prominent paleoanthropologist, stated, “It’s an extraordinarily complete, wonderful specimen, but it’s not telling us too much that we didn’t know before.” Professionals have also criticized the article formally announcing the discovery in the open-source scientific journal PloS One for failing to follow standard procedure of fully comparing this specimen with other known early primate fossils. Despite the claims of those involved in studying this specimen, its precise position with respect to the branching of the lemur and anthropoid lineages remains to be established.
The order Primates is a subdivision of the class Mammalia (mammals). While mammals already existed during the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Dinosaurs, they were a relatively minor part of the animal population. The ancestral mammals may be thought of as resembling (though certainly not identical to) small, modern rodents or shrews. They existed in the nooks and crannies of the dinosaurs’ world. However, the complex dialectical balance which was the ecosystem of the late Mesozoic, of which the mammals formed a minor component, was suddenly blown apart (perhaps almost literally, by a massive meteor impact, according to current theory) approximately 65 million years ago. Following the extinction of dinosaurs, a whole range of evolutionary opportunities opened for mammals (as well as birds).
As a result, a great diversity (known as a “radiation”) of mammalian forms developed during the Cenozoic, the Age of Mammals, both creating and driving a new, dynamic set of biological oppositions. The evolution of new species may be visualized as a branching process, beginning with a common ancestor as the “stem” and then undergoing repeated splits (speciation events), creating an ever-more-complex “bush” of increasingly differentiated species. All of the living species of mammals, and many more that have become extinct, descend from a small number of ancestral mammalian forms that existed in the early Cenozoic. Aside from primates, these groups, known in biological classification as “orders,” include, among others, rodents, carnivores, artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates such as deer and cattle), and perissodactyls (odd-toed ungulates such as horses).
The evolutionary branching patterns of these groups may be deduced in part from comparative studies of modern anatomy and, increasingly, by DNA analyses. However, the “ground truth” remains the fossil record. Unfortunately, at this time, the fossil record of early primates is very thin (i.e., there are very few known specimens). Therefore, while it is possible to project backward and hypothesize that there must have been an ancestral species from which prosimians and anthropoids diverged, only fossils can provide a view of what these animals looked like and what specific forms this process of differentiation followed.
What makes the Ida specimen so important is that it represents one small piece of a very large puzzle—a puzzle from which we have so far found only a few pieces. Because we have so little, each new piece seems to be a major step forward. The characteristics of this fossil do conform, in general terms, with what an animal near the split between prosimians and anthropoids should look like, based on the other lines of evidence mentioned above. It has some characteristics of each. However, not until many more specimens from this period are discovered, analyzed, and compared to each other will it be possible to draw a detailed picture of the evolutionary processes that took place and the factors that drove them.
Therefore, neither Ida, nor any other particular fossil specimen, should be called a “missing link,” as has been done in some of the publicity surrounding its unveiling to the world. The term “missing link” has been so misused that it should probably be retired permanently. Possibly the most notorious example of the use of this term is that of the Piltdown Hoax.
During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the dominant view of human evolution among a significant number of researchers in the field was that intelligence evolved first, before the other primary characteristics that define humans, such as bipedalism (i.e., upright walking). This was an idealist view (i.e., thought is primary) that has now been definitively disproven by fossil evidence (e.g., the australopithecines were bipedal and yet had relatively small brains). Among the dissenters from the “brain first” hypothesis was Frederick Engels (see The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man).
Nevertheless, the idealists held sway at the time. So, when a skull was “discovered” that appeared to combine a large cranium (i.e., a large brain) with an ape-like jaw, the “brain firsters” accepted it without question and proclaimed it the “missing link” between apes and humans. Ultimately, after decades during which evidence accumulated showing that bipedalism and early tool-making preceded a substantial increase in brain size, the Piltdown skull was carefully reexamined and found to be a clever fraud.
Among the cautionary lessons to be drawn from this hoax, one of the most important is that no single specimen should, by itself, be taken as the basis for far-reaching interpretations. The small number of “hobbit” specimens from Indonesia rightly places a caveat on reaching any definitive conclusions regarding their evolutionary status, despite what appears currently to be strong evidence for their being a separate species (see “Hobbits” of Flores: Implications for the pattern of human evolution ).
The concept of links of any kind, missing or not, in evolution is misleading since it promotes a static view of species in which some are singled out as “transitional” between other forms. On the contrary, each species is both itself and at the same time a link between those that came before and those that will come after (unless, of course, it becomes extinct).
The species concept must be understood dialectically (see Engels’s Anti-Duhring). Every species is, on the one hand, part of the physical and biological environment in which it exists at any given point in time (i.e., in a historically specific context). In other words, each species is one component, one opposite, in the extremely complex dialectical interaction involving an immense number of other opposites which exist at a particular historical moment, each component both determining and being determined by all of those other opposites, to varying degrees. On the other hand, and simultaneously, this dialectical system and all of its components are in the process of becoming something else. The system and its components are evolving. It must be understood that the term “system” is not meant to imply something that exists in a positivist sense. It is merely a shorthand label used to refer to the dynamic “unity” that is created by the interaction of all its constituent opposites.
Of course, the different components of the system will change at their own rates, depending on the particular nature of that species’ interaction with its effective environment (i.e., those elements of the total system with which it normally comes in contact) and the dynamics of those other environmental components. Some species—the horseshoe crab for example—have remained largely unchanged for millions of years. Their adaptation to a particular environment, on the one hand, and the relevant portions of that environment, on the other (collectively that species’ econiche), have been in a relatively balanced opposition for a very long time. Others, such as viruses and bacteria that cause disease, may evolve very rapidly as a result of their dialectical interaction with their hosts (i.e., the species they are infecting).
Infectious disease presents a very good illustration of the dialectic of evolution. Disease organisms and their hosts are engaged in a never-ending evolutionary battle. Innovation by either side (e.g., greater disease resistance on the part of the host or improved infectious capability on the part of the pathogen) changes the environment of the other, which, in turn, may give rise to compensatory adaptations and so on, back and forth. Failure on the part of either side to make adjustments to changes occurring in its opposite may result in a decline in evolutionary fitness and, ultimately, extinction. Except for cultural adaptations by humans (e.g., medicine, hygiene), such struggles are not conscious, but the result of differential survival (i.e., greater or lesser reproductive success)—in other words, natural selection.
The singling out of a particular fossil specimen as a heretofore “missing” link in some evolutionary sequence represents a conception similar to the view that history is driven by the actions of “great men.” Such a view tends to distort and obscure the fundamental processes that underlie both biological and cultural/historical change. It emphasizes the episodic and idiosyncratic, implying that there is really no way to understand why things happen.
Furthermore, such practices obscure the fact that science is a historical process that develops via the construction and critique of interpretations within the framework of theoretical traditions. Instead, new discoveries are seen as largely isolated, indeed unexpected, events that occur effectively at random and are judged on their “wow factor” rather than against the existing body of theory and data.
The Ida specimen is an important discovery. It begins to flesh out a period of primate evolution that is, as of yet, poorly understood. However, it is no more a “missing link” than any other fossil specimen.
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One second can change your life

Changes that are made for one person, unexpectedly, can change a persons entire life. How do you recoup and regroup during that change has to be done right and quick. One slip up and everything can fall apart. That is what I am experiencing, as are many others.
In one moment you can be at your happiest and the next devastated.
Ava and I miss our home, but going back doesn't mean things will be good, again. It took two years to build the life we had. But, there is nothing back home. What is home, anyway? Is it the people that you love. Dont' they have to return that love for it to truly be home? I have found continually that the love that has been in my life, never came from blood relatives. Even now, it's old friends and new ones that have embraced us. However, none can help in this predicament that we are now living.
Except, maybe, Hal. My idea guru. He has truly been my longtime friend. However, if anyone deserved to be loved flawlessly. It had to have been him. He still is there for me, if I chose. But, I freeze on that choice. It shakens me. How far would it go? There had to be a reason for me to walk away from him.
Then, there is Cathy, warning me that there is no work even in NC. She is wary of my returning to there. She would love to see me, however, she has always been brutally honest with me. There are no lies between us. So, where is home? I am in a hotel in Las Vegas trying to answer that question.
The answer is so odd...college is my home. It has always been my comfort, and excitement. I recieved honors and praise while I was in college. And felt more hope for a better future. This however, is the first time I actually feel education is not going to benefit me by the time I graduate. I heard this a long time ago, there must be poor, middle class, and wealthy. Without that, then not everyone would have a place in the world. Recently, I heard that there is to be an overload of white collar workers due to the extreme graduates. And industry is gone, and blue collar workers would be in demand but no one would be doing them except the poor, and they and the graduates would also be working for less,and the wealthy would reap the benefits of 'saving' money. This is business. Business is not personal. Business does not care about the poor.
But, for the time, I will try to resume college. Just where do I go to do that? I will seek that out tonight. Tomorrow I will have coffee with the only female friend I have, who is a true Christian lady. Valerie. I am so happy to have tomorrow morning. Because, I have nothing much else that has been 'for me'. I need the edification, the wake up to reality, some real awareness, and caring from an honest person. Thank God for this. I praise God for tomorrows coffee time. I pray for answers. I wonder if they will lead me back to Maui. It seems I never make it here on the mainland, due to lack of support. Others only return because of the weather, or that they forgot the negatives of the island. It was a small town to me, and it was easier to raise Ava, have medical and get things done there, somehow.

Delicate flower of mine.

Ava's birthday is the 16th, and kindergarten starts the 27...I am truly awaiting that day, and hope her bully isn't in the same school. If she is happy then my work prevails...if not, well things fall apart. She was singing this morning, and picked out her clothes, so pretty. And when she got to school she was writing her name and told her bully, "You have to be nice to me, today." I hated leaving her, to work. :(
She is as beautiful as a flower, as happy as a bird, as patient as a turtle. She is delicate and pure. I want others to love her, and they are not. It is painful to see the rudeness. I am saddened. Why my eldest daughter had a much more easier experience, to wallow in pity. When my youngest feels blessed by a moment of pleasure, peace and togetherness with loving kind people. She embrasses each day with a new and fresh heart. Now, I see she is becoming prepared and willing to protect herself. I hope that it means I have taught her that everything she is is truly rare, and beautiful and that nothing should change that in her.
She should not try to copy others behaviors, because, they could learn from her...I do, everyday.
God bless my Joy, forever protect her and lift her up above all of this. Keep her pure and truly good.

Josh Whites,"Red River Blues" :)

I need love...

I need a huge hug.
I need sincereness and not flattery.
I need long nice of melting into a man and just being free.
I need to feel beautiful, again.
I need fun.
I need a friend...who I don't have to explain how good of a person i am.
I need a man who can handle me...my personality, and the fact I have a family...(most of them have one too...duh)
And I need foot rubs, back rubs, front rubs, and inside rubs.
I need kisses.
I need to talk about anything.
I need to be trusted.
I need someone who wants to talk to me.
I need to touch a man, a good man.
I need to kiss, rub, and nurture a good man.
I need sex raunchy sex at least 2x a week. I am not talking about 'making love'.
I need to have my freedom to be me!
I need some man who will be himself with me all of the time.
I need to pamper and be pampered, but not all of the time.
I need a man who will love me, and be a roll model to my daughter like a father.

1984 Class Reunion

October 10,2009 I am going to celebrate my 25 year class reunion. It will be the first I have ever attended. It will be close to my daughter. And in the season I love to be in most...The Fall!
So, I am excited to call my friend and see if I can stay with her. It's amazing that we are still friends for all of these years.
I miss you Cathy. I can't wait for you to see my girls. I can't wait to laugh with you.
I have a detailed and complex trip to plan...if or if not, to return to Maui. If not...I just need to job hunt and resettle somewhere else. It's all happening in just these two days.
Sometimes when things are meant to be lifechanging...this is how it starts.