Chapter 2 - If and when evolution is the ultimate essence of life: what is the evolutionary identity of the missing link (resembling Archaeopteryx)

Abstract

When Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, there was a lack of evidence of “transitional” fossils—that appeared with structural features between two major groups of organisms, recognized as “missing links” in the “great chain of being.” Thereafter, the scientists noticed that the progress of “Life” does not follow a path of a linear chain, from “simple” form to “complex” form, rather proliferating like a branching bush with linear lineage splitting apart and exist altogether. The transitional fossil of Archaeopteryx was first described in 1861, considered as a missing link between reptiles and birds. The discovery of a missing link solely creates two further missing links—what came “before,” and what came “after.” When the “before-one,” discovered in 1996 resembled the feathered dinosaurs in China, the “after-one” that was discovered in 2018 from Slovakia was undoubtedly the first bird rather than considered as feathered theropod dinosaurs (Kundrát et al., 2018).