Missing Links
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[edit] Definition
Missing link is a popular term for an intermediate form that hasn't been found yet.
[edit] Origins
The term "missing link" appears to have originated with the early anti-Darwinian Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. When Darwin wrote the Origin of Species, no intermediate forms had been found, and this was a great weakness in the theory of evolution, as Darwin candidly admitted in chapter 12 of the Origin of Species.
With the discovery of Archaeopteryx, the situation was altered. Since then many more intermediate forms have been discovered: for more information, see our main article on Intermediate Forms Between Classes.
However, there are still undoubtedly many forms that have not as yet turned up:
[edit] Misconceptions
There are a number of misconceptions about the term "missing link" and its implications.
[edit] Missing Link = Intermediate Form
A number of creationists use the term "missing link" as though it means intermediate form. This leads creationists to make strange statements such as "There are no missing links in the fossil record". This is exactly the opposite of what creationists want to say: they mean to pretend that all the links are missing.
[edit] "The" Missing Link
A further misconception is that there is such a thing as "the" missing link, (usually identified as some putative entity somewhere between basal apes and modern humans) the absence of which casts evolution into doubt, and the presence of which would confirm it.
This is somewhat dated, since scientists now have many ape-human intermediates confirming the evolution of humans; and it is conceptally inaccurate, since there are lots of intermediate forms that have been found, and lots of intermediate forms that have not been found: the theory of evolution does not stand or fall by the ability of scientists to produce some particular form.
[edit] Missing links controverting evolution
In general, we may say that the absence of any particular link does not controvert evolution. Back in the early 1860's, when no intermediate forms ahd been found, this constituted a genuine embarrassment for supporters of Darwinism, and the best point on the side of their opponents. But since then, many thousands of intermediate forms have been discovered. Some, undoubtedly, are still missing, but this does not refute the theory of evolution, since it does not falsify any of the predictions of the Theory of Evolution: for the theory does not predict either that every form that scientists might want to look at will have been preserved in the fossil record, nor that any form so preserved will have been discovered by the year 2010.
