What is the meaning of Darwin's "missing link" in a simple language?

What is the meaning of Darwin's "missing link" in a simple language?
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Missing link is a popular term for the concept of transitional fossils. According to evolutionary theory all species are in transition ie in the process of changing due to the pressures of natural selection. This process can be very slow depending on the rate at which the species reproduces. Fossils only show examples of species at a set time (when that particular animal died) and it is very difficult for fossils to form therefore they are rare and don’t include examples of every stage of evolution. You may have one fossil from 200 million years ago and one from 150 million years ago and be able to see some similarites between them but not all. In this case the missing link (or links) would be the animals between the two fossils that you have that would help to better explain the process of evoltion in that species. A classic example is the Archaeopteryx. Some dinosaurs (Theropoda) share a lot of features in common with modern birds however it wasn’t until the discovery of the Archaeopteryx (2 years after the publication of The Origin of Species) which had a lot of features in common with therapods but also had feathers therefore making it the first clear “missing link” between dinosaurs and birds.
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