Missing Link Poem by gershon hepner

Australopethicus called Afarensis,
but Lucy by her ancient friend called Adam,
was thought to be the Eve described in Genesis––
small tits she had, that’s why she had to pad ’em ––
but then came Ardipethicus ramidus,
than Lucy older by two million years,
which further disappointed Bible readers
with ancestors who needed no brassieres.

Now Sahelanthropus tchadensis
appears to link us with the chimpanzees––
the missing link where Genesis commences––
an ape who learned about the birds and bees,
perhaps from sub-Saharan reptiles who
loved Eve, a chimpanzee, though she was braless.
Are we more happy now we know what’s true,
with genesis no longer ma- or pa-less?

French scientists digging in Central Africa have uncovered a skull, virtually complete and almost seven million years old, that belonged to an individual about the size of a chimpanzee. It is, they say, the earliest known member of the human family, by perhaps as much as a million years. In the journal report, the discoverers called the skull 'the oldest and most primitive known member of the hominid' family, close to the split of hominids and chimps. As such, they predicted, the find promised 'to illuminate the earliest chapter in human evolutionary history.'
At any rate, the specimen is sufficiently distinct from apes and other human precursors, or hominids, to be given a new genus and species name by the discovery team, headed by Dr. Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France. Its formal name is Sahelanthropus tchadensis, recognizing that all the specimens were found in the harsh desert region known as the Sahel in Central Africa south of the Sahara. More commonly, the hominid is being called Toumai, a name often given to children born close to the dry season.
'Toumai is arguably the most important fossil discovery in living memory, rivaling the discovery of the first `ape man' 77 years ago — the find which effectively founded the modern science of paleoanthropology, ' said Dr. Henry Gee, Nature's paleontology editor.
'This is really an extraordinary find, ' said Dr. Ian Tattersall, an expert on fossil hominids at the American Museum of Natural History. 'It broadens our perspective in two directions — in time and in geography.'


7/11/02,5/29/06