There is some criticism of exactly where this fossil fits on the evolutionary tree with respect to man, but as one report put it, if this species isn’t our great, great… grandmother, it’s definitely a great, great… aunt. One thing isn’t disputed: this and other fossils found at the ancient lake site in Germany are some of the best ever found from the period.
Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” fossil that’s created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins.
In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical “missing link” species in primate evolution.
The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.
“This is the first link to all humans,” Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents “the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor.”
Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs.
Very cool! I didn’t think they would find this until after I was long dead and gone. They finally found the missing link and it was in some rich guy’s house.
I read that it was hanging on this guy’s wall for over twenty years, like some kind of piece of modern artwork. And the guy was asking for $1 million at auction for it after he discovered it was actually important. Mind boggling!
So, the birthplace of humanity may have come from what was to become a German landfill site. What an interesting twist.
And happy 200th birthday, Charles Darwin!
This is ridiculous! Isn’t it obvious that evolution is bunk?
No descendant of monkeys could ever devise such a sublime scam as religion.
Ida von Lemur?
HEY! That could be my great great great great great great great … great aunt!
And yours too!!!
You know, the more stuff we find like this only makes the whole thing more a ‘miracle’ that we are even here…
I don’t understand why anyone ‘religious’ or otherwise would have a problem with that.
C’mon 47 Million years. Un-Uh too old. Maybe 5,995 but not 47 Million…that would be impossible.
“missing link” to what, modern old world monkeys? I think creationists have a much bigger problem with the idea that humans evolved from that ancestry than any notion that monkeys have changed over time.
I got an aunt that looks just like this.
That’s how I pictured Alfredone.
Love that lemur dish they have at the Malagasy restaurant on Powell just off Union Square. this one looks past its best if served by date.
#9
Alfred the theory of evolution is still the best explanation for life and the fossil record keeps supporting it’s predictions.
Can you give me a model that explains all the available data and observations that is better than evolution or even somewhat rational (cant just say God did it) unless you can tell me where this god came from who created it and who created who created it.
#10 The fossil record is clearly just an enormous scam consisting of ‘crafted fakes’, all perpetrated by the Global Atheist Conspiracy.
A nail in the coffin? There goes the blog numbers!
Creationist think man lived in the age of dinosaurs and think the earth is only 6000 years old. Do you really think this will sway those retards.
#12
Hah. Just find articles from Texas or Kansas about the reaction to the find.
what dumbasses. This is a fucking monkey. Other than it having a skeletal system it’s no where close to a human. im laughing my ass off at all the fools who are buying this ‘missing link’ shit. I love this. But then again maybe this might be true after all. Nancy Pelosi is certainly related to a jackass.
I though we all came from ice crystals that came from some spaceman’s ass in another galaxy then landed in a pool of alien shit and then some magical chemical reaction occurred from the spaceman’s ass ice and alien shit and walla! we all became fucking monkeys that morphed like a motherfucker into humans then for some unknown reason monkeys just stopped evolving, well actually we do have Obama…
A nail in the anti-evolution coffin? Hardly. Even if they do acknowledge this as filling in a gap, they’ll just point out that we’ve created two new gaps.
#11…it’s just god, fucking with us.
#11: I hope you’re just trying to be funny. If not you’re just a sad little man…
If the quantity of fossilized intermediates was sooooo good that your are nailing the lid on creationism, why does each one get such media hoopla?
Perhaps the fossil record is not quite what the Darwinist are leading you to believe?
BTW, doesn’t it get tiresome, for you, knocking down that old straw man version of creationism? Go check out reasons.org if you would like more of a challenge.
David Attenborough’s virtual reality tour of the fossil find, is just up on the BBC. Looking more like that thing from, Alien.
http://bit.ly/CXF80
#19 It would seem I need to denote /sarcasm on some posts as flame retardant. That said, it is possible to be joking AND be a sad little man…
That’s pretty old. I think it goes all the way back to the 5th day of creation.
then for some unknown reason monkeys just stopped evolving
exactly. except of course that is not what the theory of evolution says at all any more than it says that I evolved from my sister.
#20–Mark==”old straw man version of creationism”==hah, hah. Well done.
I assume “the best version” of creationism is the one that lost that court case? The one that held it was NOT SCIENCE, NOT A THEORY, and was just religion repackaged? THAT straw man???
Poof, up in flames it goes.
#5 – you mean ‘unpossible’ right?
“This is a shame. I would have hoped that this fossil would receive the care and attention it deserves, but for now it looks like a cash cow for the History Channel. Indeed, this association may not have only presented overblown claims to the public, but hindered good science, as well. As Karen James has suggested, the overall poor quality of the paper and the disproportionate hyping of the find make me wonder if this research was rushed into publication so that the media splash would occur on time. The paper tried to cover so much, so quickly, and contained so many shortfalls that I honestly have to wonder why it was allowed to be published in such a state. Perhaps we will never know, but I am sickened by the way in which a cable network has bastardized a legitimately fascinating scientific discovery, with the scientists themselves going along with it every step of the way. I can only hope that Darwinius will eventually receive the careful analysis it deserves.”
In the absence of any proof God exists, I guess that just makes all the worlds religions nothing more or less than unsubstantiated theories.
That thing looks an awful lot like my brother-in-law.
I always though he was the best argument for evolution…
#16 – wow, you manage to combine racist as well as pig-ignorant.
Maybe I’ll start research into reverse-evolution. after all, there seems to be a lot of very religious people in the US, so reverse-evolution could explain that. Yes, you are actually reverting to becoming ignorant, stupid monkeys. Hmm, I like it…..
😉
http://realtruth.org/articles/090105-001-science.html