cubbi ([info]cubbi) wrote,
@ 2009-05-19 16:04:00
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Current mood: busy

Even when the media is pro-science, it does it disservice.


This image is Fig. 1A of the PLoS ONE article

What the news say:
Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution ... Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.


What the researchers actually say:
Morphological characteristics preserved in Darwinius masillae enable a rigorous comparison with the two principal subdivisions of living primates: Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini. Defining characters of Darwinius ally it with early haplorhines rather than strepsirrhines. We do not interpret Darwinius as anthropoid, but the adapoid primates it represents deserve more careful comparison with higher primates than they have received in the past.

upd: I beat PZ Myers by one minute in posting this! His post is much longer, though.
upd: looks like the researchers may have hyped it up themselves, off-paper. Way to lose face.



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[info]madamecrystal
2009-05-19 08:15 pm UTC (link)
but is sounds nicer and gets more hits/ higher ratings/sells more copies!

journalism has gone downhill because of money, the second article is the proper way of writing it, not the first

(Reply to this)


[info]kitsunefoxman
2009-05-20 04:58 am UTC (link)
Slightly off topic, but what time period was 47 MYA? I'm talking like Pleistocene and all that stuff. I guess maybe I'm too lazy too check but I'm curious of when that monkey is from >.>

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]kitsunefoxman
2009-05-20 05:00 am UTC (link)
I correct myself, the article says the answer-Middle Eocene. I feel slightly stupid now but I didn't feel like going through all of that at the moment...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)


[info]cubbi
2009-05-20 10:30 pm UTC (link)
Pretty much the border of early and middle.

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