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</style><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks" style="width:20.0em; border: 2px solid #cf7119"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of a series on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle" style="padding: 0.2em; font-size:175%; line-height:1.0em; background: #f0e1c2;"><a href="Paleontology" title="Paleontology">Paleontology</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-image" style="padding:0 0 0.4em;"><span typeof="mw:File"></span></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background: #f0e1c2; border:1px solid #cf7119; text-align: center; padding-left:0.0em;;color: var(--color-base)">Fossils</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist">
<ul><li><a href="Fossil" title="Fossil">Fossil</a></li>
<li><a href="Fossil_preparation" title="Fossil preparation">Fossil preparation</a></li>
<li><a href="Fossil_collecting" title="Fossil collecting">Fossil collecting</a></li>
<li><a href="Index_fossil" class="mw-redirect" title="Index fossil">Index fossil</a></li>
<li><a href="Microfossil" title="Microfossil">Microfossil</a></li>
<li><a href="Trace_fossil" title="Trace fossil">Trace fossil</a></li>
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<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background: #f0e1c2; border:1px solid #cf7119; text-align: center; padding-left:0.0em;;color: var(--color-base)">Geology</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content hlist">
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<ul><li><a href="Extinction" title="Extinction">Extinction</a></li>
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<li><a href="Lazarus_taxon" title="Lazarus taxon">Lazarus taxon</a></li>
<li><a href="Living_fossil" title="Living fossil">Living fossil</a></li>
<li><a href="Pseudoextinction" title="Pseudoextinction">Pseudoextinction</a></li>
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<ul><li><a href="Cultural_depictions_of_dinosaurs" title="Cultural depictions of dinosaurs">Cultural depictions of dinosaurs</a></li>
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<p>A <b>transitional fossil</b> is any <a href="Fossil" title="Fossil">fossilized</a> remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group.<sup id="cite_ref-Freeman_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Freeman-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by <a href="Gross_anatomy" title="Gross anatomy">gross anatomy</a> and mode of living from the ancestral group. These fossils serve as a reminder that taxonomic divisions are <a href="Human" title="Human">human</a> constructs that have been imposed in hindsight on a continuum of variation. Because of the incompleteness of the fossil record, there is usually no way to know exactly how close a transitional fossil is to the point of divergence. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that transitional fossils are direct ancestors of more recent groups, though they are frequently used as models for such ancestors.<sup id="cite_ref-Prothero_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Prothero-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In 1859, when <a href="Charles_Darwin" title="Charles Darwin">Charles Darwin</a>'s <i><a href="On_the_Origin_of_Species" title="On the Origin of Species">On the Origin of Species</a></i> was first published, the fossil record was poorly known. Darwin described the perceived lack of transitional fossils as "the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory," but he explained it by relating it to the extreme imperfection of the geological record.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> He noted the limited collections available at the time but described the available information as showing patterns that followed from his theory of <a href="Evolution" title="Evolution">descent with modification</a> through <a href="Natural_selection" title="Natural selection">natural selection</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Indeed, <i><a href="Archaeopteryx" title="Archaeopteryx">Archaeopteryx</a></i> was discovered just two years later, in 1861, and represents a classic transitional form between earlier, non-avian <a href="Dinosaur" title="Dinosaur">dinosaurs</a> and <a href="Bird" title="Bird">birds</a>. <a href="List_of_transitional_fossils" class="mw-redirect" title="List of transitional fossils">Many more transitional fossils</a> have been discovered since then, and there is now abundant evidence of how all <a href="Class_(biology)" title="Class (biology)">classes</a> of <a href="Vertebrate" title="Vertebrate">vertebrates</a> are related, including many transitional fossils.<sup id="cite_ref-NS2645_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NS2645-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Specific examples of class-level transitions are: <a href="Evolution_of_tetrapods" title="Evolution of tetrapods">tetrapods</a> and <a href="Evolution_of_fish" title="Evolution of fish">fish</a>, <a href="Origin_of_birds" title="Origin of birds">birds and dinosaurs</a>, and <a href="Evolution_of_mammals" title="Evolution of mammals">mammals and "mammal-like reptiles"</a>.
</p><p>The term "missing link" has been used extensively in popular writings on <a href="Human_evolution" title="Human evolution">human evolution</a> to refer to a perceived gap in the <a href="Hominidae" title="Hominidae">hominid</a> evolutionary record. It is most commonly used to refer to any new transitional fossil finds. Scientists, however, do not use the term, as it refers to a pre-evolutionary view of nature.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Evolutionary_and_phylogenetic_taxonomy">Evolutionary and phylogenetic taxonomy</h2></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Transitions_in_phylogenetic_nomenclature">Transitions in phylogenetic nomenclature</h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Phylogenetic_nomenclature" title="Phylogenetic nomenclature">Phylogenetic nomenclature</a></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="Evolutionary_taxonomy" title="Evolutionary taxonomy">Evolutionary taxonomy</a></div>

<p>In evolutionary taxonomy, the prevailing form of <a href="Taxonomy_(biology)" title="Taxonomy (biology)">taxonomy</a> during much of the 20th century and still used in non-specialist textbooks, <a href="Taxon" title="Taxon">taxa</a> based on morphological similarity are often drawn as "bubbles" or "spindles" branching off from each other, forming evolutionary trees.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Transitional forms are seen as falling between the various groups in terms of anatomy, having a mixture of characteristics from inside and outside the newly branched <a href="Clade" title="Clade">clade</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page84_84]_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page84_84]-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>With the establishment of <a href="Cladistics" title="Cladistics">cladistics</a> in the 1990s, relationships commonly came to be expressed in <a href="Cladogram" title="Cladogram">cladograms</a> that illustrate the branching of the evolutionary lineages in stick-like figures. The different so-called "natural" or "<a href="Monophyly" title="Monophyly">monophyletic</a>" groups form nested units, and only these are given <a href="Phylogenetic_nomenclature" title="Phylogenetic nomenclature">phylogenetic names</a>. While in traditional classification tetrapods and fish are seen as two different groups, phylogenetically tetrapods are considered a branch of fish. Thus, with cladistics there is no longer a transition between established groups, and the term "transitional fossils" is a <a href="Misnomer" title="Misnomer">misnomer</a>. Differentiation occurs within groups, represented as branches in the cladogram.<sup id="cite_ref-Palaeos_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Palaeos-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In a cladistic context, transitional organisms can be seen as representing early examples of a branch, where not all of the traits typical of the previously known descendants on that branch have yet evolved.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page127_127]_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page127_127]-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Such early representatives of a group are usually termed "<a href="Basal_(phylogenetics)" title="Basal (phylogenetics)">basal taxa</a>" or "<a href="Sister_group" title="Sister group">sister taxa</a>,"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page263_263]_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page263_263]-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> depending on whether the fossil organism belongs to the daughter clade or not.<sup id="cite_ref-Palaeos_8-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Palaeos-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Transitional_versus_ancestral">Transitional versus ancestral</h3></div>
<p>A source of confusion is the notion that a transitional form between two different taxonomic groups must be a direct ancestor of one or both groups. The difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that one of the goals of evolutionary taxonomy is to identify taxa that were ancestors of other taxa. However, because evolution is a branching process that produces a complex bush pattern of related <a href="Species" title="Species">species</a> rather than a linear process producing a ladder-like progression, and because of the incompleteness of the fossil record, it is unlikely that any particular form represented in the fossil record is a direct ancestor of any other. Cladistics deemphasizes the concept of one taxonomic group being an ancestor of another, and instead emphasizes the identification of sister taxa that share a more recent common ancestor with one another than they do with other groups. There are a few exceptional cases, such as some marine <a href="Plankton" title="Plankton">plankton</a> <a href="Micropaleontology" title="Micropaleontology">microfossils</a>, where the fossil record is complete enough to suggest with confidence that certain fossils represent a population that was actually ancestral to a later population of a different species.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> But, in general, transitional fossils are considered to have features that illustrate the transitional anatomical features of actual common ancestors of different taxa, rather than to <i>be</i> actual ancestors.<sup id="cite_ref-Prothero_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Prothero-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Prominent_examples">Prominent examples</h2></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Archaeopteryx"><i>Archaeopteryx</i></h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Origin_of_birds" title="Origin of birds">Origin of birds</a></div>

<p><i><a href="Archaeopteryx" title="Archaeopteryx">Archaeopteryx</a></i> is a <a href="Genus" title="Genus">genus</a> of <a href="Theropoda" title="Theropoda">theropod</a> dinosaur closely related to the birds. Since the late 19th century, it has been accepted by palaeontologists, and celebrated in lay reference works, as being the oldest known bird, though a study in 2011 has cast doubt on this assessment, suggesting instead that it is a non-<a href="Avialae" title="Avialae">avialan</a> dinosaur closely related to the origin of birds.<sup id="cite_ref-Xiaotingia_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Xiaotingia-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>It lived in what is now southern Germany in the <a href="Late_Jurassic" title="Late Jurassic">Late Jurassic</a> <a href="Period_(geology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Period (geology)">period</a> around 150&nbsp;million years ago, when Europe was an <a href="Archipelago" title="Archipelago">archipelago</a> in a shallow warm tropical sea, much closer to the equator than it is now. Similar in shape to a <a href="European_magpie" class="mw-redirect" title="European magpie">European magpie</a>, with the largest individuals possibly attaining the size of a <a href="Raven" title="Raven">raven</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-Erickson_etal_2009_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Erickson_etal_2009-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <i>Archaeopteryx</i> could grow to about 0.5&nbsp;metres (1.6&nbsp;ft) in length. Despite its small size, broad wings, and inferred ability to fly or glide, <i>Archaeopteryx</i> has more in common with other small <a href="Mesozoic" title="Mesozoic">Mesozoic</a> dinosaurs than it does with modern birds. In particular, it shares the following features with the <a href="Deinonychosauria" title="Deinonychosauria">deinonychosaurs</a> (<a href="Dromaeosauridae" title="Dromaeosauridae">dromaeosaurs</a> and <a href="Troodontidae" title="Troodontidae">troodontids</a>): jaws with sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes ("killing claw"), <a href="Feather" title="Feather">feathers</a> (which suggest <a href="Homeothermy" title="Homeothermy">homeothermy</a>), and various skeletal features.<sup id="cite_ref-Yalden_1_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Yalden_1-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> These features make <i>Archaeopteryx</i> a clear candidate for a transitional fossil between dinosaurs and birds,<sup id="cite_ref-UCal_MoP_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-UCal_MoP-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> making it important in the study both of dinosaurs and of the origin of birds.
</p><p>The first complete specimen was announced in 1861, and ten more <i>Archaeopteryx</i> fossils have been found since then. Most of the eleven known fossils include impressions of feathers—among the oldest direct evidence of such structures. Moreover, because these feathers take the advanced form of <a href="Flight_feather" title="Flight feather">flight feathers</a>, <i>Archaeopteryx</i> fossils are evidence that feathers began to evolve before the Late Jurassic.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Australopithecus_afarensis"><i>Australopithecus afarensis</i></h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main articles: <a href="Australopithecus_afarensis" title="Australopithecus afarensis">Australopithecus afarensis</a> and <a href="Human_evolution" title="Human evolution">Human evolution</a></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="List_of_human_evolution_fossils" title="List of human evolution fossils">List of human evolution fossils</a></div>

<p>The hominid <i>Australopithecus afarensis</i> represents an evolutionary transition between modern bipedal humans and their quadrupedal <a href="Ape" title="Ape">ape</a> ancestors. A number of traits of the <i>A. afarensis</i> skeleton strongly reflect bipedalism, to the extent that some researchers have suggested that bipedality evolved long before <i>A. afarensis</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-Lovejoy1988_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Lovejoy1988-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In overall anatomy, the pelvis is far more human-like than ape-like. The <a href="Ilium_(bone)" title="Ilium (bone)">iliac blades</a> are short and wide, the sacrum is wide and positioned directly behind the hip joint, and there is clear evidence of a strong attachment for the <a href="Rectus_femoris_muscle" title="Rectus femoris muscle">knee extensors</a>, implying an upright posture.<sup id="cite_ref-Lovejoy1988_17-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Lovejoy1988-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap"><span title="Page / location: 122">: 122 </span></sup>
</p><p>While the <a href="Pelvis" title="Pelvis">pelvis</a> is not entirely like that of a human (being markedly wide, or flared, with laterally orientated iliac blades), these features point to a structure radically remodelled to accommodate a significant degree of <a href="Bipedalism" title="Bipedalism">bipedalism</a>. The <a href="Femur" title="Femur">femur</a> angles in toward the knee from the <a href="Hip" title="Hip">hip</a>. This trait allows the foot to fall closer to the midline of the body, and strongly indicates habitual bipedal locomotion. Present-day humans, <a href="Orangutan" title="Orangutan">orangutans</a> and <a href="Spider_monkey" title="Spider monkey">spider monkeys</a> possess this same feature. The feet feature <a href="Adducted" class="mw-redirect" title="Adducted">adducted</a> big toes, making it difficult if not impossible to grasp branches with the <a href="Hindlimb" title="Hindlimb">hindlimbs</a>. Besides locomotion, <i>A. afarensis</i> also had a slightly larger brain than a modern <a href="Common_chimpanzee" class="mw-redirect" title="Common chimpanzee">chimpanzee</a><sup id="cite_ref-SmithsonianHuman_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-SmithsonianHuman-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (the closest living relative of humans) and had teeth that were more human than ape-like.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Pakicetids,_Ambulocetus">Pakicetids, <i>Ambulocetus</i></h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Evolution_of_cetaceans" title="Evolution of cetaceans">Evolution of cetaceans</a></div>
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</style><div class="thumb tmulti tleft"><div class="thumbinner multiimageinner" style="width:179px;max-width:179px"><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:177px;max-width:177px"><div class="thumbimage"><span typeof="mw:File"></span></div><div class="thumbcaption">Reconstruction of <i><a href="Pakicetus" title="Pakicetus">Pakicetus</a></i></div></div></div><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:177px;max-width:177px"><div class="thumbimage"><span typeof="mw:File"></span></div><div class="thumbcaption">Skeleton of <i><a href="Ambulocetus_natans" class="mw-redirect" title="Ambulocetus natans">Ambulocetus natans</a></i></div></div></div></div></div>
<p>The <a href="Cetacea" title="Cetacea">cetaceans</a> (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are <a href="Marine_mammal" title="Marine mammal">marine mammal</a> descendants of land <a href="Mammal" title="Mammal">mammals</a>. The <a href="Pakicetidae" title="Pakicetidae">pakicetids</a> are an <a href="Extinction" title="Extinction">extinct</a> <a href="Family_(biology)" title="Family (biology)">family</a> of hoofed mammals that are the earliest whales, whose closest sister group is <i><a href="Indohyus" title="Indohyus">Indohyus</a></i> from the family <a href="Raoellidae" title="Raoellidae">Raoellidae</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-science_news_2_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-science_news_2-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> They lived in the Early <a href="Eocene" title="Eocene">Eocene</a>, around 53&nbsp;million years ago. Their fossils were first discovered in North Pakistan in 1979, at a river not far from the shores of the former <a href="Tethys_Sea" class="mw-redirect" title="Tethys Sea">Tethys Sea</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Pakicetids could hear under water, using enhanced bone conduction, rather than depending on <a href="Tympanic_membrane" class="mw-redirect" title="Tympanic membrane">tympanic membranes</a> like most land mammals. This arrangement does not give directional hearing under water.<sup id="cite_ref-hearing_23-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-hearing-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><i><a href="Ambulocetus_natans" class="mw-redirect" title="Ambulocetus natans">Ambulocetus natans</a></i>, which lived about 49&nbsp;million years ago, was discovered in Pakistan in 1994. It was probably amphibious, and looked like a <a href="Crocodile" title="Crocodile">crocodile</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-skeleton_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-skeleton-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In the Eocene, <a href="Ambulocetidae" title="Ambulocetidae">ambulocetids</a> inhabited the bays and estuaries of the Tethys Ocean in northern Pakistan.<sup id="cite_ref-radiations_25-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-radiations-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The fossils of ambulocetids are always found in near-shore shallow marine deposits associated with abundant marine plant fossils and <a href="Littoral_zone" title="Littoral zone">littoral</a> <a href="Mollusca" title="Mollusca">molluscs</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-radiations_25-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-radiations-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Although they are found only in marine deposits, their oxygen isotope values indicate that they consumed water with a range of degrees of salinity, some specimens showing no evidence of sea water consumption and others none of fresh water consumption at the time when their teeth were fossilized. It is clear that ambulocetids tolerated a wide range of salt concentrations.<sup id="cite_ref-poster_26-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-poster-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Their diet probably included land animals that approached water for drinking, or freshwater aquatic organisms that lived in the river.<sup id="cite_ref-radiations_25-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-radiations-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Hence, ambulocetids represent the transition phase of cetacean ancestors between freshwater and marine habitat.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Tiktaalik"><i>Tiktaalik</i></h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main articles: <a href="Tiktaalik" title="Tiktaalik">Tiktaalik</a> and <a href="Evolution_of_tetrapods" title="Evolution of tetrapods">Evolution of tetrapods</a></div>


<p><i>Tiktaalik</i> is a genus of extinct <a href="Sarcopterygii" title="Sarcopterygii">sarcopterygian</a> (lobe-finned fish) from the Late <a href="Devonian" title="Devonian">Devonian</a> period, with many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals).<sup id="cite_ref-Nature_27-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Nature-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It is one of several lines of ancient sarcopterygians to develop adaptations to the oxygen-poor shallow water habitats of its time—adaptations that led to the evolution of tetrapods.<sup id="cite_ref-scientificamerican_28-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-scientificamerican-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Well-preserved fossils were found in 2004 on <a href="Ellesmere_Island" title="Ellesmere Island">Ellesmere Island</a> in <a href="Nunavut" title="Nunavut">Nunavut</a>, Canada.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><i>Tiktaalik</i> lived approximately 375&nbsp;million years ago. <a href="Paleontology" title="Paleontology">Paleontologists</a> suggest that it is representative of the transition between non-tetrapod vertebrates such as <i><a href="Panderichthys" title="Panderichthys">Panderichthys</a></i>, known from fossils 380&nbsp;million years old, and early tetrapods such as <i><a href="Acanthostega" title="Acanthostega">Acanthostega</a></i> and <i><a href="Ichthyostega" title="Ichthyostega">Ichthyostega</a></i>, known from fossils about 365&nbsp;million years old. Its mixture of primitive fish and derived tetrapod characteristics led one of its discoverers, <a href="Neil_Shubin" title="Neil Shubin">Neil Shubin</a>, to characterize <i>Tiktaalik</i> as a "<a href="Tetrapodomorpha" title="Tetrapodomorpha">fishapod</a>."<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Unlike many previous, more fish-like transitional fossils, the "fins" of <i>Tiktaalik</i> have basic wrist bones and simple rays reminiscent of fingers. They may have been <a href="Weight-bearing" title="Weight-bearing">weight-bearing</a>. Like all modern tetrapods, it had rib bones, a mobile neck with a separate pectoral girdle, and lungs, though it had the gills, scales, and fins of a fish.<sup id="cite_ref-Nature_27-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Nature-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However in a 2008 paper by Boisvert at al. it is noted that <i>Panderichthys</i>, due to its more derived distal portion, might be closer to tetrapods than <i>Tiktaalik</i>, which might have independently developed similarities to tetrapods by convergent evolution.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Tetrapod footprints found in Poland and reported in <i><a href="Nature_(journal)" title="Nature (journal)">Nature</a></i> in January 2010 were "securely dated" at 10&nbsp;million years older than the oldest known <a href="Elpistostegalia" title="Elpistostegalia">elpistostegids</a><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (of which <i>Tiktaalik</i> is an example), implying that animals like <i>Tiktaalik</i>, possessing features that evolved around 400&nbsp;million years ago, were "late-surviving relics rather than direct transitional forms, and they highlight just how little we know of the earliest history of land vertebrates."<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Amphistium"><i>Amphistium</i></h3></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Flatfish#Evolution" title="Flatfish">Flatfish §&nbsp;Evolution</a></div>


<p><a href="Pleuronectiformes" class="mw-redirect" title="Pleuronectiformes">Pleuronectiformes</a> (flatfish) are an <a href="Order_(biology)" title="Order (biology)">order</a> of <a href="Actinopterygii" title="Actinopterygii">ray-finned fish</a>. The most obvious characteristic of the modern flatfish is their asymmetry, with both eyes on the same side of the head in the adult fish. In some families the eyes are always on the right side of the body (dextral or right-eyed flatfish) and in others they are always on the left (sinistral or left-eyed flatfish). The primitive <a href="Spiny_turbot" title="Spiny turbot">spiny turbots</a> include equal numbers of right- and left-eyed individuals, and are generally less asymmetrical than the other families. Other distinguishing features of the order are the presence of protrusible eyes, another adaptation to living on the <a href="Seabed" title="Seabed">seabed</a> (<a href="Benthos" title="Benthos">benthos</a>), and the extension of the dorsal fin onto the head.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><i><a href="Amphistium" title="Amphistium">Amphistium</a></i> is a 50-million-year-old fossil fish identified as an early relative of the flatfish, and as a transitional fossil.<sup id="cite_ref-NaEvo_36-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NaEvo-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In <i>Amphistium</i>, the transition from the typical symmetric head of a vertebrate is incomplete, with one eye placed near the top-center of the head.<sup id="cite_ref-FriedmanFlatfish_37-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FriedmanFlatfish-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Paleontologists concluded that "the change happened gradually, in a way consistent with evolution via <a href="Natural_selection" title="Natural selection">natural selection</a>—not suddenly, as researchers once had little choice but to believe."<sup id="cite_ref-NaEvo_36-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NaEvo-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><i>Amphistium</i> is among the many fossil fish species known from the <a href="Monte_Bolca" title="Monte Bolca">Monte Bolca</a> <i><a href="Lagerst%C3%A4tte" title="Lagerstätte">Lagerstätte</a></i> of <a href="Lutetian" title="Lutetian">Lutetian</a> Italy. <i><a href="Heteronectes" title="Heteronectes">Heteronectes</a></i> is a related, and very similar fossil from slightly earlier strata of France.<sup id="cite_ref-FriedmanFlatfish_37-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FriedmanFlatfish-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Runcaria"><i>Runcaria</i></h3></div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main articles: <a href="Runcaria" title="Runcaria">Runcaria</a> and <a href="Evolution_of_plants" class="mw-redirect" title="Evolution of plants">Evolution of plants §&nbsp;Seeds</a></div>
<p>A Middle Devonian precursor to <a href="Spermatophyte" class="mw-redirect" title="Spermatophyte">seed plants</a> has been identified from Belgium, predating the earliest seed plants by about 20&nbsp;million years. <i>Runcaria</i>, small and radially symmetrical, is an integumented <a href="Sporangium" title="Sporangium">megasporangium</a> surrounded by a <a href="Calybium_and_cupule" title="Calybium and cupule">cupule</a>. The megasporangium bears an unopened <a href="Distal" class="mw-redirect" title="Distal">distal</a> extension protruding above the multilobed <a href="Integument#Botanical_usage" title="Integument">integument</a>. It is suspected that the extension was involved in <a href="Anemophily" title="Anemophily">anemophilous pollination</a>. <i>Runcaria</i> sheds new light on the sequence of character acquisition leading to the seed, having all the qualities of seed plants except for a solid <a href="Seed_coat" class="mw-redirect" title="Seed coat">seed coat</a> and a system to guide the pollen to the seed.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Fossil_record">Fossil record</h2></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="Taphonomy" title="Taphonomy">Taphonomy</a></div>
<p>Not every transitional form appears in the <a href="Fossil_record" class="mw-redirect" title="Fossil record">fossil record</a>, because the fossil record is not complete. Organisms are only rarely preserved as fossils in the best of circumstances, and only a fraction of such fossils have been discovered. Paleontologist <a href="Donald_Prothero" title="Donald Prothero">Donald Prothero</a> noted that this is illustrated by the fact that the number of species known through the fossil record was less than 5% of the number of known living species, suggesting that the number of species known through fossils must be far less than 1% of all the species that have ever lived.<sup id="cite_ref-Prothero2007pp5053_39-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Prothero2007pp5053-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Because of the specialized and rare circumstances required for a biological structure to fossilize, logic dictates that known fossils represent only a small percentage of all life-forms that ever existed—and that each discovery represents only a snapshot of evolution. The transition itself can only be illustrated and corroborated by transitional fossils, which never demonstrate an exact half-way point between clearly divergent forms.<sup id="cite_ref-CC200_40-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-CC200-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The fossil record is very uneven and, with few exceptions, is heavily slanted toward organisms with hard parts, leaving most groups of <a href="Soft-bodied_organism" title="Soft-bodied organism">soft-bodied organisms</a> with little to no fossil record.<sup id="cite_ref-Prothero2007pp5053_39-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Prothero2007pp5053-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The groups considered to have a good fossil record, including a number of transitional fossils between traditional groups, are the vertebrates, the <a href="Echinoderm" title="Echinoderm">echinoderms</a>, the <a href="Brachiopod" title="Brachiopod">brachiopods</a> and some groups of <a href="Arthropod" title="Arthropod">arthropods</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="History_of_paleontology" title="History of paleontology">History of paleontology</a> and <a href="Timeline_of_paleontology" title="Timeline of paleontology">Timeline of paleontology</a></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Post-Darwin">Post-Darwin</h3></div>

<p>The idea that animal and plant species were not constant, but changed over time, was suggested as far back as the 18th century.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Darwin's <i>On the Origin of Species</i>, published in 1859, gave it a firm scientific basis. A weakness of Darwin's work, however, was the lack of palaeontological evidence, as pointed out by Darwin himself. While it is easy to imagine <a href="Natural_selection" title="Natural selection">natural selection</a> producing the variation seen within <a href="Genus" title="Genus">genera</a> and families, the transmutation between the higher categories was harder to imagine. The dramatic find of the <a href="Archaeopteryx#History_of_discovery" title="Archaeopteryx">London specimen</a> of <i><a href="Archaeopteryx" title="Archaeopteryx">Archaeopteryx</a></i> in 1861, only two years after the publication of Darwin's work, offered for the first time a link between the <a href="Class_(biology)" title="Class (biology)">class</a> of the highly derived birds, and that of the more basal <a href="Reptile" title="Reptile">reptiles</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDarwin1859[httpwwwreadprintcomchapter-2217Charles-Darwin_Chapter_10]_43-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDarwin1859[httpwwwreadprintcomchapter-2217Charles-Darwin_Chapter_10]-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In a letter to Darwin, the palaeontologist <a href="Hugh_Falconer" title="Hugh Falconer">Hugh Falconer</a> wrote:
</p>
<blockquote><p>Had the Solnhofen quarries been commissioned—by august command—to turn out a strange being à la Darwin—it could not have executed the behest more handsomely—than in the <i>Archaeopteryx</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote>
<p>Thus, transitional fossils like <i>Archaeopteryx</i> came to be seen as not only corroborating Darwin's theory, but as icons of evolution in their own right.<sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, the Swedish <a href="Encyclopedic_dictionary" title="Encyclopedic dictionary">encyclopedic dictionary</a> <i>Nordisk familjebok</i> of 1904 showed an inaccurate <i>Archaeopteryx</i> reconstruction (see illustration) of the fossil, "ett af de betydelsefullaste paleontologiska fynd, som någonsin gjorts" ("one of the most significant paleontological discoveries ever made").<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="The_rise_of_plants">The rise of plants</h3></div>
<p>Transitional fossils are not only those of animals. With the increasing mapping of the <a href="Phylum#Land_plant_phyla_(divisions)" title="Phylum">divisions</a> of plants at the beginning of the 20th century, the search began for the ancestor of the <a href="Vascular_plant" title="Vascular plant">vascular plants</a>. In 1917, <a href="Robert_Kidston" title="Robert Kidston">Robert Kidston</a> and <a href="William_Henry_Lang" title="William Henry Lang">William Henry Lang</a> found the remains of an extremely primitive plant in the <a href="Rhynie_chert" title="Rhynie chert">Rhynie chert</a> in <a href="Aberdeenshire" title="Aberdeenshire">Aberdeenshire</a>, Scotland, and named it <i><a href="Rhynia" title="Rhynia">Rhynia</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-Kidston1917_47-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Kidston1917-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The <i>Rhynia</i> plant was small and stick-like, with simple <a href="Dichotomy" title="Dichotomy">dichotomously</a> branching stems without leaves, each tipped by a <a href="Sporangium" title="Sporangium">sporangium</a>. The simple form echoes that of the <a href="Sporophyte" title="Sporophyte">sporophyte</a> of <a href="Mosses" class="mw-redirect" title="Mosses">mosses</a>, and it has been shown that <i>Rhynia</i> had an <a href="Alternation_of_generations" title="Alternation of generations">alternation of generations</a>, with a corresponding <a href="Gametophyte" title="Gametophyte">gametophyte</a> in the form of crowded tufts of diminutive stems only a few millimetres in height.<sup id="cite_ref-Kerpetal2004_48-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Kerpetal2004-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <i>Rhynia</i> thus falls midway between mosses and early vascular plants like <a href="Fern" title="Fern">ferns</a> and <a href="Lycopodiopsida" title="Lycopodiopsida">clubmosses</a>. From a carpet of moss-like gametophytes, the larger <i>Rhynia</i> sporophytes grew much like simple clubmosses, spreading by means of horizontal growing stems growing <a href="Rhizoid" title="Rhizoid">rhizoids</a> that anchored the plant to the substrate. The unusual mix of moss-like and vascular traits and the extreme structural simplicity of the plant had huge implications for botanical understanding.<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Missing_links">Missing links</h2></div>


<p>The idea of all living things being linked through some sort of transmutation process predates Darwin's theory of evolution. <a href="Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck" title="Jean-Baptiste Lamarck">Jean-Baptiste Lamarck</a> envisioned that life was generated constantly in the form of the simplest creatures, and strove <a href="Orthogenesis" title="Orthogenesis">towards complexity and perfection</a> (i.e. humans) through a progressive series of lower forms.<sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>50<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In his view, lower animals were simply newcomers on the evolutionary scene.<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>51<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>After <i>On the Origin of Species</i>, the idea of "lower animals" representing earlier stages in evolution lingered, as demonstrated in <a href="Ernst_Haeckel" title="Ernst Haeckel">Ernst Haeckel</a>'s figure of the human pedigree.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHaeckel2011216_52-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHaeckel2011216-52"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>52<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> While the vertebrates were then seen as forming a sort of evolutionary sequence, the various <a href="Class_(biology)" title="Class (biology)">classes</a> were distinct, the undiscovered intermediate forms being called "missing links."
</p><p>The term was first used in a scientific context by <a href="Charles_Lyell" title="Charles Lyell">Charles Lyell</a> in the third edition (1851) of his book <i>Elements of Geology</i> in relation to missing parts of the <a href="Geologic_time_scale" title="Geologic time scale">geological column</a>, but it was popularized in its present meaning by its appearance on page xi of his book <i><a href="Geological_Evidences_of_the_Antiquity_of_Man" title="Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man">Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man</a></i> of 1863. By that time, it was generally thought that the end of the <a href="Last_glacial_period" class="mw-redirect" title="Last glacial period">last glacial period</a> marked the first appearance of humanity; Lyell drew on new findings in his <i>Antiquity of Man</i> to put the origin of human beings much further back. Lyell wrote that it remained a profound mystery how the huge gulf between man and beast could be bridged.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>53<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Lyell's vivid writing fired the public imagination, inspiring <a href="Jules_Verne" title="Jules Verne">Jules Verne</a>'s <i><a href="Journey_to_the_Center_of_the_Earth" title="Journey to the Center of the Earth">Journey to the Center of the Earth</a></i> (1864) and <a href="Louis_Figuier" title="Louis Figuier">Louis Figuier</a>'s 1867 second edition of <i>La Terre avant le déluge</i> ("Earth before the Flood"), which included dramatic illustrations of savage men and women wearing animal skins and wielding stone axes, in place of the <a href="Garden_of_Eden" title="Garden of Eden">Garden of Eden</a> shown in the 1863 edition.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrowne2003130,_218,_515_54-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBrowne2003130,_218,_515-54"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>54<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The search for a fossil showing transitional traits between apes and humans, however, was fruitless until the young Dutch geologist <a href="Eug%C3%A8ne_Dubois" title="Eugène Dubois">Eugène Dubois</a> found a skullcap, a molar and a <a href="Femur" title="Femur">femur</a> on the banks of <a href="Solo_River" title="Solo River">Solo River</a>, <a href="Java" title="Java">Java</a> in 1891. The find combined a low, ape-like <a href="Skull_roof" title="Skull roof">skull roof</a> with a brain estimated at around 1000&nbsp;cc, midway between that of a chimpanzee and an adult human. The single molar was larger than any modern human tooth, but the femur was long and straight, with a knee angle showing that "<a href="Java_Man" title="Java Man">Java Man</a>" had walked upright.<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Given the name <i><a href="Homo_erectus" title="Homo erectus">Pithecanthropus erectus</a></i> ("erect ape-man"), it became the first in what is now a long <a href="List_of_human_evolution_fossils" title="List of human evolution fossils">list of human evolution fossils</a>. At the time it was hailed by many as the "missing link," helping set the term as primarily used for human fossils, though it is sometimes used for other intermediates, like the dinosaur-bird intermediary <i><a href="Archaeopteryx" title="Archaeopteryx">Archaeopteryx</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-56" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>

<p>While "missing link" is still a popular term, well-recognized by the public and often used in the popular media,<sup id="cite_ref-zimmer_58-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-zimmer-58"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>58<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> the term is avoided in scientific publications.<sup id="cite_ref-NS2645_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NS2645-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Some bloggers have called it "inappropriate";<sup id="cite_ref-hm_59-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-hm-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> both because the links are no longer "missing", and because human evolution is no longer believed to have occurred in terms of a single linear progression.<sup id="cite_ref-NS2645_5-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-NS2645-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-nomorelink_60-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nomorelink-60"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>60<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Punctuated_equilibrium">Punctuated equilibrium</h2></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Punctuated_equilibrium" title="Punctuated equilibrium">Punctuated equilibrium</a></div>
<p>The theory of punctuated equilibrium developed by <a href="Stephen_Jay_Gould" title="Stephen Jay Gould">Stephen Jay Gould</a> and <a href="Niles_Eldredge" title="Niles Eldredge">Niles Eldredge</a> and first presented in 1972<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>61<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is often mistakenly drawn into the discussion of transitional fossils.<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-62"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This theory, however, pertains only to well-documented transitions within taxa or between closely related taxa over a geologically short period of time. These transitions, usually traceable in the same geological outcrop, often show small jumps in morphology between extended periods of morphological stability. To explain these jumps, Gould and Eldredge envisaged comparatively long periods of genetic stability separated by periods of rapid evolution. Gould made the following observation concerning creationist misuse of his work to deny the existence of transitional fossils:
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</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by <a href="Creationism" title="Creationism">creationists</a>—whether through design or stupidity, I do not know—as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. The punctuations occur at the level of species; directional trends (on the staircase model) are rife at the higher level of transitions within major groups. </p></blockquote><div class="templatequotecite"><p style="display: inline; padding-left: 2.3em;">— <a href="Stephen_Jay_Gould" title="Stephen Jay Gould">Stephen Jay Gould</a>, <i><a href="The_Panda's_Thumb_(book)" title="The Panda's Thumb (book)">The Panda's Thumb</a></i><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGould1980189_63-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGould1980189-63"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Crocoduck" title="Crocoduck">Crocoduck</a></li>
<li><a href="Evidence_of_common_descent" title="Evidence of common descent">Evidence of common descent</a></li>
<li><a href="Missing_link_(human_evolution)" title="Missing link (human evolution)">Missing link</a></li>
<li><a href="Speciation" title="Speciation">Speciation</a></li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-Freeman-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Freeman_1-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFFreemanHerron2004">Freeman &amp; Herron 2004</a>, p.&nbsp;816</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-Prothero-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Prothero_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Prothero_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFProthero2007">Prothero 2007</a>, pp.&nbsp;133–135</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDarwin1859">Darwin 1859</a>, pp.&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&amp;itemID=F373&amp;pageseq=297">279–280</a></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDarwin1859">Darwin 1859</a>, pp.&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&amp;itemID=F373&amp;pageseq=359">341–343</a></span>
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<li id="cite_note-NS2645-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-NS2645_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NS2645_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-NS2645_5-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">
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</style><cite id="CITEREFProthero2008" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="Donald_Prothero" title="Donald Prothero">Prothero, Donald R.</a> (1 March 2008). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726451.700-evolution-what-missing-link.html?full=true">"Evolution: What missing link?"</a></span>. <i><a href="New_Scientist" title="New Scientist">New Scientist</a></i>. <b>197</b> (2645): <span class="nowrap">35–</span>41. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fs0262-4079%2808%2960548-5">10.1016/s0262-4079(08)60548-5</a>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0262-4079">0262-4079</a>.</cite></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For example, see <a href="#CITEREFBenton1997">Benton 1997</a></span>
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<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page84_84]-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page84_84]_7-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFProthero2007">Prothero 2007</a>, p.&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/evolutionwhatfos00prot_0/page/84">84</a>.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-Palaeos-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Palaeos_8-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Palaeos_8-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFKazlev" class="citation web cs1">Kazlev, M. Alan. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://palaeos.com/vertebrates/tetrapoda/amphibians.html">"Amphibians, Systematics, and Cladistics"</a>. <i><a href="Palaeos" title="Palaeos">Palaeos</a></i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">9 May</span> 2012</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page127_127]-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page127_127]_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFProthero2007">Prothero 2007</a>, p.&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/evolutionwhatfos00prot_0/page/127">127</a>.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page263_263]-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEProthero2007[httpsarchiveorgdetailsevolutionwhatfos00prot_0page263_263]_10-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFProthero2007">Prothero 2007</a>, p.&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/evolutionwhatfos00prot_0/page/263">263</a>.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-UCal_MoP-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-UCal_MoP_15-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html">"<i>Archaeopteryx</i>: An Early Bird"</a>. <i><a href="University_of_California_Museum_of_Paleontology" title="University of California Museum of Paleontology">University of California Museum of Paleontology</a></i>. Berkeley, CA: <a href="University_of_California%2C_Berkeley" title="University of California, Berkeley">University of California, Berkeley</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 October</span> 2006</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFWellnhofer2004">Wellnhofer 2004</a>, pp.&nbsp;282–300</span>
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<li id="cite_note-SmithsonianHuman-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-SmithsonianHuman_18-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/australopithecus-afarensis">"<i>Australopithecus afarensis</i>"</a>. <i>Human Evolution</i>. Washington, D.C.: <a href="Smithsonian_Institution" title="Smithsonian Institution">Smithsonian Institution</a>'s Human Origins Program<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">15 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-zimmer-58"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-zimmer_58-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFZimmer2009" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="Carl_Zimmer" title="Carl Zimmer">Zimmer, Carl</a> (19 May 2009). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110905220434/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/05/19/darwinius-it-delivers-a-pizza-and-it-lengthens-and-it-strengthens-and-it-finds-that-slipper-thats-been-at-large-under-the-chaise-lounge-for-several-weeks/">"Darwinius: It delivers a pizza, and it lengthens, and it strengthens, and it finds that slipper that's been at large under the chaise lounge [sic] for several weeks..."</a> <i><a href="Discover_(magazine)" title="Discover (magazine)">The Loom</a></i> (Blog). Waukesha, WI: <a href="Kalmbach_Publishing" class="mw-redirect" title="Kalmbach Publishing">Kalmbach Publishing</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/05/19/darwinius-it-delivers-a-pizza-and-it-lengthens-and-it-strengthens-and-it-finds-that-slipper-thats-been-at-large-under-the-chaise-lounge-for-several-weeks/">the original</a> on 5 September 2011<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">10 September</span> 2011</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-hm-59"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-hm_59-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFSambrani2009" class="citation web cs1">Sambrani, Nagraj (10 June 2009). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.biologytimes.com/why-the-term-missing-links-is-inappropriate/">"Why the term 'missing links' is inappropriate"</a>. <i>Biology Times</i> (Blog)<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-nomorelink-60"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-nomorelink_60-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/newly-found-fossils-could-link-to-human-ancestor-1.930070">"Newly found fossils could link to human ancestor"</a>. <i><a href="CBC_News" title="CBC News">CBC News</a></i>. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: <a href="Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation" title="Canadian Broadcasting Corporation">Canadian Broadcasting Corporation</a>. 8 April 2010<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>. <q>It's tempting to call the new species a 'missing link' between earlier species and modern humans, but scientists say the concept no longer applies, given new knowledge of human evolution. [...] Researchers now say the evolution of humans consisted of a number of diverse species in many branches, not a single smooth line from ape-like species to humans.</q></cite></span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-61"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-61">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFEldredgeGould1972">Eldredge &amp; Gould 1972</a>, pp.&nbsp;82–115</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-62"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-62">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBates2006" class="citation journal cs1">Bates, Gary (December 2006). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://creation.com/that-quote-about-the-missing-transitional-fossils">"That quote!—about the missing transitional fossils"</a>. <i>Creation</i>. <b>29</b> (1): <span class="nowrap">12–</span>15. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0819-1530">0819-1530</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">6 July</span> 2014</span>.</cite>
<ul><li><cite id="CITEREFTheunissen1997" class="citation web cs1">Theunissen, Lionel (24 June 1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/patterson.html">"Patterson Misquoted: A Tale of Two 'Cites'"</a>. <i><a href="TalkOrigins_Archive" title="TalkOrigins Archive">TalkOrigins Archive</a></i>. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li></ul>
</span></li>
<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEGould1980189-63"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGould1980189_63-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFGould1980">Gould 1980</a>, p.&nbsp;189.</span>
</li>
</ol></div></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Sources">Sources</h2></div>
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<li><cite id="CITEREFShubin2008" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Neil_Shubin" title="Neil Shubin">Shubin, Neil</a> (2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/yourinnerfishjou00shub_0"><i>Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body</i></a>. New York: <a href="Pantheon_Books" title="Pantheon Books">Pantheon Books</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>978-0-375-42447-2</bdi>. <a href="LCCN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="LCCN (identifier)">LCCN</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2007024699">2007024699</a>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/144598195">144598195</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite id="CITEREFSwisherCurtisLewin2001" class="citation book cs1">Swisher, Carl C. III; <a href="Garniss_Curtis" title="Garniss Curtis">Curtis, Garniss H.</a>; <a href="Roger_Lewin" title="Roger Lewin">Lewin, Roger</a> (2001) [Originally published 2000]. <i>Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution</i>. Chicago, IL: <a href="University_of_Chicago_Press" title="University of Chicago Press">University of Chicago Press</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>978-0-226-78734-3</bdi>. <a href="LCCN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="LCCN (identifier)">LCCN</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2001037337">2001037337</a>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/48066180">48066180</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite id="CITEREFWellnhofer2004" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Peter_Wellnhofer" title="Peter Wellnhofer">Wellnhofer, Peter</a> (2004). "The Plumage of <i>Archaeopteryx</i>: Feathers of a Dinosaur?". In <a href="Philip_J._Currie" title="Philip J. Currie">Currie, Philip J.</a>; Koppelhus, Eva B.; Shugar, Martin A.; et&nbsp;al. (eds.). <i>Feathered Dragons: Studies on the Transition from Dinosaurs to Birds</i>. Life of the Past. Bloomington, IN: <a href="Indiana_University_Press" title="Indiana University Press">Indiana University Press</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>978-0-253-34373-4</bdi>. <a href="LCCN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="LCCN (identifier)">LCCN</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2003019035">2003019035</a>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/52942941">52942941</a>.</cite></li>
<li><cite id="CITEREFWellnhofer2009" class="citation book cs1">Wellnhofer, Peter (2009). <i>Archaeopteryx: The Icon of Evolution</i>. Translated by Frank Haase; foreword by <a href="Luis_M._Chiappe" title="Luis M. Chiappe">Luis M. Chiappe</a> (Revised English edition of the 1st German&nbsp;ed.). München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a>&nbsp;<bdi>978-3-89937-108-6</bdi>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a>&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/501736379">501736379</a>.</cite></li></ul>
</div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>
<ul><li><cite id="CITEREFLloyd2009" class="citation news cs1">Lloyd, Robin (11 February 2009). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.livescience.com/3306-fossils-reveal-truth-darwin-theory.html">"Fossils Reveal Truth About Darwin's Theory"</a>. <i><a href="LiveScience" class="mw-redirect" title="LiveScience">LiveScience</a></i>. Ogden UT: <a href="Purch" class="mw-redirect" title="Purch">Purch</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li>
<li><cite id="CITEREFHunt1997" class="citation web cs1">Hunt, Kathleen (17 March 1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html">"Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ"</a>. <i><a href="TalkOrigins_Archive" title="TalkOrigins Archive">TalkOrigins Archive</a></i>. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li>
<li><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111112134921/http://tiktaalik.uchicago.edu/">"<i>Tiktaalik roseae</i>"</a>. Chicago, IL: <a href="University_of_Chicago" title="University of Chicago">University of Chicago</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://tiktaalik.uchicago.edu/">the original</a> on 12 November 2011<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li>
<li><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/exhibitions/whales/Segment.aspx?irn=161">"Whales Tohorā"</a>. Wellington, New Zealand: <a href="Museum_of_New_Zealand_Te_Papa_Tongarewa" class="mw-redirect" title="Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa">Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li>
<li><cite id="CITEREFHutchinson1998" class="citation web cs1">Hutchinson, John R. (22 January 1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html">"Are Birds Really Dinosaurs?"</a>. <i>DinoBuzz</i>. Berkeley, CA: <a href="University_of_California_Museum_of_Paleontology" title="University of California Museum of Paleontology">University of California Museum of Paleontology</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 May</span> 2015</span>.</cite></li></ul>
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