BBC Focus Magazine

[scott fairbrass]

just been watching Q.I. And stephen fry as just said that we didnt evolve from apes but from a hedgehog type creature and then a possum like creature. Also that we are missing the final link to tie our 'line' toogether. How true is this? And how many stages of our 'line' do we have?

[Liam Sheppard]

We didn't evolve from chimpanzees, humans and chimps are both cousins that share a common ancestor about 6 million years ago (If memory serves)... Obviously we both came from an ape type mammal, that in turn would have come from something before and so on and so on. No doubt a possum and then a fish

[Shadowwolf]

...stephen fry as just said that we didnt evolve from apes but from a hedgehog type creature...

You sure, as I'm sure he'd not exclude the necessary ape part, probably exclude something specific like chimp..., which is what Mr Sheppard mentioned and possibly because he also saw it.

Also that we are missing the final link to tie our 'line' toogether.

There are always gaps but as discoveries are made and our knowledge expands those gaps or missing links get filled, For instance Australopithecus Afarensis was not known fifty years ago, however, it is now and another piece of the puzzle has been filled. There is also the very likely scenario where the gap or link remains empty, it's a big planet and these fossils are not exactly common, entirely possible that some intermediates never saw any remains becomes fossilised.

[scott fairbrass]

he said we dint evolve from chimps but then held up sign saying apes indicating that we didnt evolve from apes either

[Flakkarin]

This is a surprisingly enlightening treatment of the "missing link" question (start watching at 1:15)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRJ8DMyBLTc

[Healerman]

[Liam Sheppard]

ha ha

I didn't see it but I assume he meant that we and apes evolved from a common ancestor... That ancestor was not an ape as such. maybe?

[Nails]

We are apes, and our most recent common ancestor with chimps/bonobos/gorillas/orangutans must also have been an ape.

This early ape would have evolved from many (now extinct) species of proto-ape which evolved from a line of tail-less primates and so on.

All eutherian mammals are descended from the earliest known ancestor which lived around 160 million years ago.

There is a really well preserved fossil from 125 million years ago which is shrew-like and is almost certailnly an ancestor of all placental mammals.

[Liam Sheppard]

http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/football/2011/dec/27/gillingham-chris-whelpdale-scrotum?code=AQBwoqHg3YPND5VmGTBiGH6E67T03K1jev1ArKNxAG5fk583XgHt91N8PqXplp-j-smPirVpwfLC2eTGNyBAVTFww7hoChXpMoh6oZZ9IhrJorHViWfmstyJdkIw_imGgBNB8pEdgLlCc7CgST1KJbmKo1KDLmdEbTOFUTEA-8fwc_4i6jVOuR_oykYMSTboH0w#_=_

so whats next for the human race? sexless testosterone free men?

[Shadowwolf]

Perhaps you might elaborate Mr Liam, I have no farcebook and thus cannot see whatever it is you link to.

[Liam Sheppard]

ah sorry, an article in the guardian about a generation of Japanese men that have no interest in sex, women or relationships.. at least not real ones.. they prefer virtual ones.. and are becoming 'less manly'..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/27/japan-men-sexless-love?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Nails]

Virtual women are easier to please, don't moan when you get drunk and watch football.....

[Willxx]

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it would be a publicising a support group number for "people who have been affected by issues raised by the discussion of evolution"

I can imagine the list of complaints:
Keep them there sciencey type bloke off of our telly!!
Why is all these brain types doing that talking stuff on my tv?"
Whats with using up all the good airtime with their facts and logic when we could have x factor and soaps??