Missing Links Part 1

Nebraska Tooth
In 1922 professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, a confirmed evolutionist and head of the Museum of Natural History, found a tooth in his home state of Nebraska. He claimed it was an early ape man. Dental Experts from the museum of Natural History examined it and concluded that it was from a creature more similar to man than an ape. They assumed that it was a missing link and it quickly became known as “Nebraska Man”.

Wait a second, man? I thought it was just a tooth. “Nebraska tooth” would work for me, but no! a full two page spread was drawn in the Illustrated London News, and distributed worldwide. The picture showed a rather stupid looking ape man with a club in hand, and his mate, in the back ground, an assortment of animals roaming around in a rocky terrain, sprinkled with dead trees and long grass. I doubt that the general public really knew what kind of fossil evidence stood behind this missing link.

Six years later in 1928, a mistake was found. It seems that the tooth wasn’t from an early man, it was from an extinct pig! Oops, just goes to show you what can happen when you base your information on assumptions. Pigs are often dissected instead of humans because their anatomy is very similar to that of a human. But Professor Osborn was looking for evidence for evolution, not a pig tooth, so he jumped to conclusions. This is not true science, scientists should not let their personal ideas affect their studies. I think many evolutionary scientists do.