New Fossil Primate Challenges "Missing Link" Ida

News Type: Event — Seeded on Fri Jul 3, 2009 11:54 AM EDT

Article Source: Science: Current Issue

science, evolution, anthropology, human-evolution, paleoanthropology, ida

Remember Ida? It's been just a month since the fossil primate made her debut on the History Channel where she was called a "missing link" between humans and primitive primates and a "revolutionary scientific find that will change everything." But Ida may be robbed of her claim to that title by a new fossil primate from Asia, published today. "It shows that Ida is out of the running as a [human] ancestor," says the fossil's discoverer, paleontologist K. Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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1.5

{"commentId":8005222,"authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}

Michael Sautter

It takes a while for scientists to figure things out and even then another new fossil can changes things entirely.

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1 vote

#1 - Fri Jul 3, 2009 12:26 PM EDT

{"commentId":8005754,"authorDomain":"wallen-1"}

WmRAllen

"Missing link" is a bad term in any case... all fossils (and all living organisms, for that matter) are transitional in some sense or another.

New information causing revisions of the operating theories-- exactly how the scientific method proceeds.

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1 vote

#1.1 - Fri Jul 3, 2009 1:09 PM EDT

{"commentId":8020346,"authorDomain":"gingamegs"}

gingamegs

This comes as no great shock since Ida was never really "in the running" as a human ancestor. It was established quite early that Ida was not antecedent to humans and apes. She was, at best, a very early primate, but the find is still remarkable nonetheless.

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1 vote

#2 - Sat Jul 4, 2009 7:44 AM EDT

{"commentId":8026884,"authorDomain":"jwms"}

Jeffrey Merrill

I find it interesting that the origins being traced from Asia, not Africa, is now an accepted theory and could radically change a lot of other thoughts, in regard to the origins of man.

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1 vote

#3 - Sat Jul 4, 2009 4:51 PM EDT

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MICHAEL SAUTTER

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New Fossil Primate Challenges "Missing Link" Ida

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