Missing Link (Noun)
Meaning
Hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings.
Classification
Nouns denoting people.
Examples
- The discovery of Lucy in 1974 was hailed as the missing link between humans and apes, but further research revealed that she was more closely related to modern humans than previously thought.
- The concept of the missing link has been largely discredited by modern evolutionary theory, which suggests that the transition from ape to human was a gradual process.
- In the 19th century, scientists believed that the missing link would be a creature with a mix of human and ape-like features, but this idea has been largely abandoned.
- The Piltdown Man, discovered in 1912, was initially thought to be the missing link, but was later revealed to be a forgery.
- The search for the missing link has been replaced by a more nuanced understanding of human evolution, which recognizes that the transition from ape to human was a complex and multifaceted process.