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: That would be most unfortunate. The redirect is appropriate because 'missing link' describes in a confused and lay (non-specialist) way part of the same idea as transitional fossil: the same, because the idea is that there is some kind of a gap to be transitioned between item of evidence A and item B; confused and lay because of course a gap is inherent in the fossil record, not least because each fossil is discrete so by definition there must be gaps, but also because of the feeling that just one more piece would complete the jigsaw puzzle, or that this one exciting discovery is the magic missing piece. You unfortunately can't dismiss this as purely antiquated because the popular press still treats the likes of Tiktaalik as a missing link; every decade we get headlines like 'throw away your zoology textbooks'. No, 'missing link' is properly a view of the transitional fossil concept, and while it has misunderstanding all around it, you could say that transitional does too; after all, many if not most fossils illustrate some kind of transition. [[User:Chiswick Chap|Chiswick Chap]] ([[User talk:Chiswick Chap|talk]]) 06:48, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
::I agree, the two terms "transitional fossil" and "missing link" describe the same phenomena. If anything, we should put the term "missing link" in the first sentence of the lede as it probably is the most used (if not correct) term. [[User:Petter Bøckman|Petter Bøckman]] ([[User talk:Petter Bøckman|talk]]) 09:49, 29 May 2012 (UTC)
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