Meet the ancestors - missing link found!

[Hercules Rockefeller]

This is amazing stuff!

Common Ancestor Of Humans, Modern Primates? 'Extraordinary' Fossil Is 47 Million Years Old

Scientists have found a 47-million-year-old human ancestor. Discovered in Messel Pit, Germany, the fossil, described as Darwinius masillae, is 20 times older than most fossils that explain human evolution.

Known as “Ida,” the fossil is a transitional species – it shows characteristics from the very primitive non-human evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but is more related to the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes and humans). At 95% complete, the fossil provides the most complete understanding of the paleobiology of any Eocene primate so far discovered.

Link: ScienceDaily (May 19, 2009)

 

[Xylene]

Indeed, the preservation is so phenomenal (due to the nature of the matrix) that they can tell he had berries for his last meal...

 

[Captain Kremmen]

It looks three dimensional, though it is only as thick as a beermat.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

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

In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, palaeontologist 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
http://www.revealingthelink.com/

Interactive guide to human evolution
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2005/04/flores-hominids/map-interactive

 

[Michael]

Missing Link

Actually, another missing link, this time between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives like lemurs.

 

[charles brough]

I wonder about the term "missing link." I never use it. Seems to me that it conveys the wrong concept. The number of links from species to species is infinite, infinite "links." Perhaps what best expresses the concept is that each such discovery helps bridge the gap between species. We accumulate bridges, not links.

charles
http://atheistic-science.com

 

[Captain Kremmen]

This exquisite fossil will require decades of study.
I don't think I've ever used the word exquisite before, but I can't find a better one to describe it.
It's stunning. It is a lemur type animal with a thumb and fingernails.
Every bone is visible, and can be compared with other species.
In the history of Paleontology it will probably be ranked equal with Archaeopteryx.

 

[Orleander]

More missing links.

I feel bad that I hadn't even heard of most of them. I found the Pikaia to be the most interesting (because it was new to me)

 

[krokah]

Mmmm...looks like one of my old party friends that rode a harley..smile

 

[Captain Kremmen]

I think you've got something there.
It does look like an old biker.

 

[Orleander]

uh-oh, now its not the 'missing link'


...In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York.
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He and his colleagues compared 360 specific anatomical features of 117 living and extinct primate species to draw up a family tree. They report the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Ida is a skeleton of a 47 million-year-old cat-sized creature found in Germany. It starred in a book, "The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor."

Ida represents a previously unknown primate species called Darwinius. The scientists who formally announced the finding said they weren't claiming Darwinius was a direct ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. But they did argue that it belongs in the same major evolutionary grouping, and that it showed what an actual ancestor of that era might have looked like.

The new analysis says Darwinius does not belong in the same primate category as monkeys, apes and humans. Instead, the analysis concluded, it falls into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs.

Experts agreed....

 

[one_raven]

Ever notice people who don't believe in religion look really un-evolved? Eyes too close together with big, furry hands a feet." - Bill Hicks

 

[Enmos]

It is my understanding that Lemurs predate Monkeys and Apes. In other words, Lemurs are more primitive.
Therefor, I think that it isn't too far-fetched to think that Primate ancestors may have looked like Lemurs.
But if the scientists from Orleanders article are right then it's obviously not a missing link, or even an ancestor of humans. They'd be more like distant cousins.

 

[BenTheMan]

I wonder about the term "missing link." I never use it. Seems to me that it conveys the wrong concept. The number of links from species to species is infinite, infinite "links." Perhaps what best expresses the concept is that each such discovery helps bridge the gap between species. We accumulate bridges, not links.

I agree, though I don't like the word infinite. Of course, you can count all the animals that ever existed---there's a lot of them, but you can still count them. There are a zillion little links, with large stretches of the chain missing. To think that one specimen is THE specimen which proves that monkeys evolved from rats (or whatever) is overstating the importance, I think.