May 19, 2009—Meet "Ida," the small "missing link" found in Germany 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 (interactive guide to human evolution from National Geographic magazine).

(Among the team members was University of Michigan paleontologist Philip Gingerich, a member of the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)

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.

"This specimen looks like a really early fossil monkey that belongs to the group that includes us," said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study.

But there's a big gap in the fossil record from this time period, Richmond noted. Researchers are unsure when and where the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans split from the other group of primates that includes lemurs.

"[Ida] is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree," Richmond said, "but it's not the only branching point."

At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. (Explore a prehistoric time line.)

"From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there," Richmond explained. "So you can't say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology."

In Ida's case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves.

What's more, the newly described "missing link" was found in Germany's Messel Pit. Ida's European origins are intriguing, Richmond said, because they could suggest—contrary to common assumptions—that the continent was an important area for primate evolution.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090519-missing-link-found.html

Scientists working in Africa have discovered a Stone Age skull that could be a link between the extinct Homo erectus species and modern humans (interactive guide to human evolution from National Geographic magazine).

Rare Find

Researchers discovered the skull five weeks ago at Gawis in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region (map of Ethiopia). The area is rich in fossil and archaeological deposits ranging from 10,000 years to 5.6 million years in age.

An international group known as the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project began field research in the area in 1999.

Asahmed Humet, a local Afar tribesman working with project, found the early-human cranium in a small gully at the base of a steep slope of sediments.

The skull was missing a lower jaw but had a nearly intact cranium. Most early human fossils are found in many small pieces.

The scientists believe the skull comes from the middle Pleistocene era, about 600,000 to 200,000 years ago.

Homo erectus is thought to be an ancestor of modern Homo sapiens. H. erectus first appeared in Africa and lived from about 1.9 to 0.8 million years ago. (See photos and more from a recent H. erectus discovery in the republic of Georgia.)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0327_060327_skull.html

I saw that thing on the computer and news yesterday. Interesting, but I still don't buy it that it was a precursor to humans.

I didn't know that Homo Erectus was extinct? Since when?

Some odd hundred billions of years...we are considered Homosapien.

There is a website for it also:

revealingthelink.com

Pretty cool! I think the History Channel is also running a program on it. Its quite a significant find at 47 million years to be that complete. I think Lucy is a little over 3, right when bipedalism was first beginning to show up and we were breaking off so this is extraordinary. Thanks for posting!

it's a new animal.(they got that part right)
all we know is that it died ,WE DON'T KNOW IF HAD KIDS AND CAN NEVER PROVE IT HAD A KID DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IT IS

evolution is just for the ignorant

It's a 47-million-year-old "new animal".

You said that we don't know if it had a kid. Umm...the article said that it was a kid.

It's for the ignorant? Are you joking? Science is fascinating to me.

<======== ignorant

I guess im ignorant also. I dont believe it had reached sexual maturity yet and had not reproduced. Its not a man. Lucy was 3.2 million years old and IDA is 47 million years old to try to put it into some kind of perspective. Ida is at the very beginning of primate evolution. Lucy was essentially the breaking off point into bipedalism etc...

From the IDA site:

"There's something strikingly familiar about Ida's skeleton. That's because, like us, Ida is a primate. She lived around the time that primates split into two major groups. The prosimians are the non-human branch who have survived mainly as modern lemurs. The anthropoids are the other branch - from which humans evolved.

Ida's skeleton has some early anthropoid traits. These foreshadow physical features which later appear in monkeys, apes, and of course, humans. So although Ida was a primitive primate who lived 47 million years ago, her anatomy has remarkable similarities to our own."

yadda yadda
evolution isn't science
it's all unprovable!!!!!
btw i love science also that'sjust not part of it
have a great day

In my opinion, evolution is by far more likely than Adam and Eve...

i think evolution is *****in.

Studying evolution is science.

Part of one definition of science:

Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural phenomena. Less formally, the word science often describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from it.

And Wiki:

Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research. Using controlled methods, scientists collect observable evidence of natural or social phenomena, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to construct theoretical explanations of how things work.

Hmm. Im at a loss.

Oh, I know! Okay I didnt correlate the B----in. Sorry.

Its rare that a field of science has as much evidence to support the field.

Evolution is the unifying theory of biology, and has more evidence to support it then does our current theory of gravity.

Truly. To even speak of a 'missing link' is a bit silly really. The evidence is already as solid as it can be, and has been for many years.

To even call this a 'missing link' I feel is a poor term. It should simply be viewed as just more confirming evidence of what we already know to be true.

I agree. Im not really sure what they mean by "missing link" anymore. I think that term is somewhat outdated now. I think its just easier to say and people are familiar with that terminology. Its less obtuse then saying "more evidence to support what we already realize is factual data link".

I think they have found something important. I believe a great number of the humans living today evolved from a Lemur primate.

Strange too,I read about this evolutionary story in the Urantia book a few years back.