The phrase "Living Fossil" is second to only "Missing Link" on my list of irks-me-to-no-end abuses of English language. Darren Naish now explains exactly what is wrong with the term, using as the case study the recent rediscovery of the Sumatran rhino. This is your Most Obligatory reading of the day!
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The phrase "Living Fossil" is second to only "Missing Link" on my list of irks-me-to-no-end abuses of English language.
Well, if we're playing that game, here's one of mine: "to no end" means "to no purpose, for no reason". The phrase you want is "irks me no end", meaning "irks me endlessly".
Thanks...you know I am a furrinner...
Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed to be "correcting" your English, which is better than many native speakers', but you take evident care with it so I figured you wouldn't mind.
I've always had issues with the term "living fossil." On occasion, I'll see a press release that states something like "by 'living fossil' we mean..." and I tolerate that. But any organism that's alive today, no matter how much it resembles its 100+ million old ancestor, has gone through just as much evolution as you and me and everything else alive today.
Wait, you live in North Carolina and never heard of Jesse Helmes?
Does 'braindead' equal 'dead'? If so, he's been a fossil all his life.
Would a zombie Spinosaurus qualify as a living fossil?
Ha! I guess so! Scooby Doo where are you?
I am using the terms "living fossil" occasionally and "missing link" more often in hopes of drawing in people who think of evolution or taxonomy in those ways and even creationists who might be looking for yet another list of Gaps in the Fossil Record, and then hitting them with a snippet of information or a filled gap. It's an indexer's trick to think of the terms that your audience will use and not just your own favourites.
(Example here: Microscopic missing link)