The scientists claim that the fossil is one of the missing links between today’s highly developed primates, including humans, on the one hand, and more distant relatives on the other.
The 47-million-year-old fossil of Ida is 20 times older than most well preserved fossils that shed light on our own development. Photo: The Link – Atlantic Productions
Like finding Noah’s Ark
The fossil was presented with great fanfare on 19 May at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “This is like finding Noah’s Ark. The fossil is likely to find a place in textbooks during the next hundred years,” said Mr Hurum at the press conference.
According to the BBC, Mr Hurum said that the fossil is the closest we will get to finding a direct ancestor.
Found in 1983
The fossil was discovered as far back as in 1983 in Messel near Darmstadt in Germany, but the amateurs who found it didn’t understand what they had come across.
In 2007 the University of Oslo Natural History Museum bought the fossil. It has since be studied in detail by palaeontologist Jørn Hurum and leading scientists from a number of countries. The fossil has been given the name “Ida” after Mr Hurum’s six-year-old daughter.
Details of the discovery were published in the academic magazine PLoS One on the day of the presentation, and a TV documentary and a book are in the making.
The Norwegian palaeontologist Jørn Hurum is the man behind the sensational discovery. Photo: The Link – Atlantic Productions / www.revealingthelink.com
A miracle
Ida lived in the Eocene epoch. At first glace, she looks like a lemur, but scientists have concluded that she belonged to a previously unknown species, which has been given the name Darwinius masiallae, after the place the fossil was found and because this year we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.
Dr Jens Franzen, an expert on the Messel area a member of the research team, has described Ida as “an eighth wonder of the world” because of the skeleton’s remarkable state of preservation. According to Dr Franzen, Ida resembles us in many ways. However, certain aspects of her teeth indicate that she may not be a direct ancestor of humans. She may, in other words, be more like an “aunt” than a “grandmother”.
Some independent scientists who haven’t seen the fossil are sceptical of the claims that have been made about it and all the fuss surrounding its presentation. In the time ahead there will doubtless be many discussions about what this discovery really signifies.
The Norwegian Government has allocated NOK 2.2 million to the Natural History Museum in Oslo to ensure that the sensational discovery can be followed up satisfactorily.