They aren’t missing!

By Rhiannonw

Fri, 07 Jul 2023
  • 476 reads
4 comments
 

They used to think
that soon they‘d find a ‘missing link’
between mankind and apes;
they drew imaginative 
posture and facial shapes –
all from discovered tooth – excitement big,
– then found to be
the tooth of a pig!
Then clever Piltdown forgery
fooled for forty years.

It appears
all fossils are ape or human,
though some may have suffered from rickets.

Don’t bother to wait,
they’ve not just been missed,
they don’t exist,
the difference is real
and much too great!

[IP: What have you missed?] this last week's, it's not usually changed so early on a Friday, and I had emergencyy grandparent duty this morning and couldn't finish this]

Certificate U
Poem
Grand Designs
Nature
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

I'd never considered the possibility of creatures other than humans suffering from rickets, but I suppose they must.

Imagine being a millipede... ooohh!

 

Turlough

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

No, it's been recognised that Neaderthal man that was supposed to be sub-human may have suffered from rickets and that affected their posture. They have been found to be showing fully human  characteristics and intelligence. So, again, no evidence of any evolution of an ape-like animal into human Rhiannon

but no, I wouldn't like to be a millipede with rickets!

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

I remember 'Piltdown Man' and the homage to it or him in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.  I really enjoyed this Rhiannon.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

thank you. I hadn't heard of that mention, and looked it up! Rhiannon