Re: A new term for "missing link"

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

The term 'transitional form' might be a bit better - although I personally 
don't like it. Evolution 
doesn't have an end result in mind, so there's no such thing as an 'inbetween' 
condition. It's only 
when we try to define arbitrary groups, and then find something that blurs the 
line between them, 
that we refer to something as 'transitional'. It's only transitional relative 
to our arbitrary groupings. 
Change the definitions of the groupings, and you can change a fossil's 
'transitional' status.

*Every* living thing that had ancestors and decendants (or could have 
decendants in the case of 
living organisms) is a 'transitional' form of some sort. However at least the 
term 'transitional form' 
avoids the contradiction of a 'missing' link that has been found (and therefore 
isn't missing at all).

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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist                Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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