47 Million-Year-Old Fossil of Missing Link Unveiled

[Stealth Hunter]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_w...light_on_.html

Originally Posted by New York Daily News

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

Originally Posted by New York Daily News

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," said lead scientist Jorn Hurum during 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, Germany, in 1983.
Experts believe the pit was a volcanic caldera where scores of animals from the Eocene period 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.

WOW.

[rubenandthejets]

Love the hype. Is no field of endevour safe from spin?

Personally I'd rather see a lot more Europs style quasi amphibians than an Eocene primate, but that's just me.

For my money, the "missing link" should be around 4-8 mya, not 47!

Its just another hoax by these so called "scientists" , a fossil 47million years old ?
Everyone knows the earth was only made 6000 years ago on a tuesday afternoon just after tea-time and fossils are the animals noah didn't put on his magic boat 4400 years ago .

[antikristuseke]

Callin it the missing link is silly, incredibly silly. Science reporting needs a good sharp kick in the arse, slaping on spin to make it more exiting needs to stop.

Science reporting needs a good sharp kick in the arse

Be fair . You wouldn't really expect decent reporting in a tabloid , let alone decent reporting on science.
something like this is better

As one of the most significant primate fossil finds ever made, Ida will be hailed by some as "the missing link" in our evolutionary history. But is that really true? Well, yes and no.
The phrase usually refers to the creature that links us to the apes, in particular the common ancestor of chimpanzees and ourselves. At 47m years old, Ida – or Darwinius masillae, to use her formal name – is much more ancient than that. But she is undoubtedly a very significant link in the primate lineage and the evidence from her extraordinarily well-preserved skeleton points to her being a very early member of our own primate line.
The fossil evidence of primate evolutionary history is sparsely populated – more missing than link. So almost any major primate fossil at a significant point in our ancestral line could be referred to by that over-used phrase.
Also, filling the gap is not the end of the story. "Every time you find a link that once was missing, you find two more, you've created two more that are missing. So it's never going to be a complete chain," said Sir David Attenborough, who is narrating a BBC documentary on the fossil.

Or from the fella quoted in the NYDNews piece

"[The species] could represent a stem group from which later anthropoid primates evolved [the line leading to humans], but we are not advocating this here."

or on the criticism of his use of the term "missing link"

"Why not? I think we could use that phrase for this kind of specimen," he said. "[People] have a feeling that if something is important it is a missing link."

[antikristuseke]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Be fair . You wouldn't really expect decent reporting in a tabloid , let alone decent reporting on science.

True ennough, thats why i try to get my information elsewhere.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0519104643.htm

[Murr44]

If the History Channel is making a film about this you can be sure that it will have quite a few distortions & inaccuracies and be very sensationalistic. If I'm not mistaken they made the Jurassic Fight Club series & those programs were loaded with errors (ie. certain dinosaurs being anatomically incorrect: Utahraptor being one example). About the only good thing about the series is the computer animation.

[Jimbuna]

Haven't we already seen a film with the 'missing link' playing a starring role

[Murr44]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Haven't we already seen a film with the 'missing link' playing a starring role

So that's where we came from! Thanks for clearing that up for me...

[SpeedyPC]

Anybody seen this from UK

[jpm1]

fascinating