Missing Link Between Monkeys, Apes and Humans?
The skeletal remains of a 47-million-year-old lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US.
The fossil is so well preserved, you can actually make out the outline of its fur and see traces of its last meal.
Being the size of a small cat with four long legs and a long tail, could this find be an indication of what our ancestors looked like?
Missing Link To Human Evolution?
Some have hailed the creature as the "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives. Could such a discovery help fill in the evolutionary gaps and illuminate the early evolution of primates?
Some independent experts on the subject are sceptical and saying, "not so quick", as they await an opportunity to see the new fossil first hand and make up their minds for themselves.
Here, in a David Attenborough-narrated BBC programme, Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor, the fossil is revealed in virtual reality... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8057977.stm.
Discovered in Messil Pit (26 Yrs Ago)
This amazing find was first discovered by an amateur collector some 26 years ago in the Messil Pit world heritage site, a disused quarry southeast of Frankfurt, Germany, where many fossils have been found. It was kept in a private collection until sold in an auction in 2006. It was bought by Dr Jorn Hurum, professor of vertebrate technology at the University of Oslo Natural History Museum.
The almost 50 million yr old fossil was idyllically named Ida, after the daughter of Dr Jens Franzen, a researcher from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt who is an authority on the Messil Pit area. He said: "We are not dealing with our grand, grand, grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand, aunt."
Ida Confirmed As Primate
Although Ida holds little resemblance to any of the higher primates, it is linked to humans by the talus bone in her ankle. This bone is the same shape in Ida as in higher primates, and scientists also said her opposable big toes and nails, not claws, confirmed she was a primate.
Measuring just two feet from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail, she died before her first birthday, Dr Hurum said, adding, "It's really hard to pinpoint exactly who gave rise to humans at that point but this is as good as it gets really."
Fossil in Extraordinary Condition
This truly is an amazing fossil remain. Ida is nearly entirely intact, apart from one lower limb, and remnants of her fur are still evident. Even evidence of her last meal of fruit and leaves was present in the stomach cavity when discovered.
The skeleton has been put on display at New York's Museum of Natural History.
Ida No Missing Link
Is Ida, more formally known as Darwinius masillae... a missing link?
Well, not necessarily, although insofar as it seems to confirm Darwin's speculation about transitional species, it's a huge coup for fans of Charles Darwin. Darwinius masillae is definitely an "awesome fossil," said University of Minnesota, Morris, biologist PZ Myers in Scienceblogs.com, "but all the hype about how she's the missing link in human evolution is annoying."
All the hype surrounding Ida may in fact be bad news, not because Ida is unimportant, but because it detracts from the larger body of the fossil record. In the end, the media may be unable (or unwilling) to muster as much excitement from whatever new fossil gets published in Nature or Science next week, no matter how significant it may be.
"Go ahead and be excited by this find, just remember to be excited tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, because this is perfectly normal science, and it will go on."
Ida is just one of many, many links in the evolution of humans—and chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys—so she isn't really "at all unique as a representative of the complex history of life on Earth."
Granted, the researchers over-hyped this find to get attention, said Thomas H. Maugh II and Tina Susman in the Los Angeles Times, but "the fossil is certainly a gem."
Scientists have mostly pieced together the story of evolution using "fossilized skulls, jawbones, and the occasional foot." But the lemur-like Darwinius masillae was so well preserved when her remains settled into the bottom of a lake that we know what her last meal was—berries and a salad—so there's good reason to hope that studying her will fill gaps in our knowledge.
Ok, this may not have anything to do with Anna Maria Island, but its interesting... don't you think?
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