A transitional fossil is an example of a successful complete species that has some characteristics of at least two other species.
I think that usually, we are looking at species that have characteristics of two
modern, higer taxa. The very funny part is that literalists are looking for transitionals between rather high taxa (like reptile and mammel) which are easier to find than they might be between genera (certainly in the fossil record).
They never, ever seem to get the point about modern taxa and what it implies though.
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