Missing link found? Scientists unveil fossil of 47 million-year-old primate

¹²³ · May 20, 2009

The 47 million year old fossilized remains of a primate is seen at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists call the Holy Grail of human evolution.

A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.

Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.

Scientists say the cat-sized animal's hind legs offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright - a breakthrough that could finally confirm Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

"This specimen is like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists," lead scientist Jorn Hurum said at a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History.

"It is the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail. This fossil will probably be the one that will be pictured in all textbooks for the next 100 years."

A team of amateur fossil hunters discovered the near-perfect remains inside a mile-wide crater outside of Frankfurt in 1983.

Experts believe the pit was a volcanic caldera where scores of animals from the Eocene epoch were killed and their remains were kept remarkably well-preserved.

Though the pit has been a bountiful source of other fossils, the inexperienced archeologists didn't realize the value of their find.

Years later, the University of Oslo bought the 95%-intact fossil, and Hurum studied it in secret for two years.
His colleague, Jens Franzen, hailed the discovery as "the eighth wonder of the world."

"We're not dealing with our grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," Franzen said.

The unveiling of the fossil came as part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign unusual for scientific discoveries.

A History Channel film on the discovery will air next week.

A book release and a slew of other documentaries will follow.
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¹²³ · May 20, 2009

Ida: Superstar fossil or superstar hype?

Any time a fossil comes with a press release headed "a revolutionary scientific find that will change everything," science writers' ears perk up.

So it was with the announcement yesterday, describing a remarkably complete fossil of an approximately 47-million-year-old primate that involved New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, David Attenborough (see our recent interview), the American Museum of Natural History, the BBC, the History Channel, Good Morning America and Philip Gingerich, a prominent American palaeontologist.

Gingerich was part of an international team claiming that a fossil discovered in Germany - Darwinius masillae - is the common ancestor of anthropoid primates: that is, all monkeys and apes, including humans.
The Wall Street Journal was among the first out of the blocks, running a story several days before the announcement. It explained that the fossil, which is also known as Ida, could solve a long-standing debate over which of two primate lines gave rise to apes and monkeys: adapids, which include modern-day lemurs, or tarsidae, a family that includes tarsiers, wide-eyed Asian animals.

Britain's Daily Mail, who also got the story well before Tuesday's press conference, writes:

"Some palaeontologists believe we evolved from the adapids - but that theory is hotly contested. The new skeleton appears to be a previously unknown type of adapid which would be the 'missing link' between small mammals and the apes which evolved into humans."

The New York Times followed on these early reports last Saturday with added detail:

"Described as the 'most complete fossil primate ever discovered,' the specimen is a juvenile female the size of a small monkey. Only the left lower limb is missing, and the preservation is so remarkable that impressions of fur and the soft body outline are still clear. The animal's last meal, of fruit and leaves, remained in the stomach cavity."

Some sources found the palaeontological debate too complicated and arcane to lead with, and instead related the discovery to friction between creationists and evolutionary biologists, or "evolutionists", as CBS News put it: "A primate skeleton claimed to be 47 million years old could further amplify the often contentious debate between evolutionists and creationists."

The problem with that angle is that you could claim that any palaeontological discovery ignites this "debate," as the field of evolutionary biology is well beyond the need to prove that common descent with modification explains the diversity of life, including humans.

And there's really no debate at all. As the Knight Science Journalism Tracker wrote, while commenting on a similar slant in the Wall Street Journal story:

"The two fields, one of doubt-based scientific inquiry and one of faith-based declaration, don't really debate. They hardly speak."

Science bloggers put some needed cold water on the claims that the Darwinius masillae fossil conclusively determines which group of mammals gave rise to apes and monkeys, as well as the media blitz.

Brian Switek on Laelaps, an evolutionary biology blog, says:

"I have yet to see the paper, but I am skeptical of this conclusion. First, one of the main authors of the paper is Philip Gingerich, who has been maintaining the evolution of anthropoid primates from adapids for years despite evidence to the contrary."

Matthew Nisbet, a communications professor at American University in Washington, DC, writes at Framing Science:

"My chief concern about today's announcement is that it might extend into hype."

They may be onto something. Another Another New York Times story analysing the media roll-out of Darwinius masillae included this gem of a quote, from the lead scientist behind the buzz, Jorn Hurum, of the University of Oslo, Norway:

"Any pop band is doing the same thing. Any athlete is doing the same thing. We have to start thinking the same way in science."

Hurum is the same researcher who dubbed a recent fossil find "Predator X".
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¹²³ · May 20, 2009

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