47 Million-Year-Old Fossil Possible Human Ancestor

In an article published May 19th, 2009 Scientists released data that shows that this fossil could be, “the first link to all humans … truly a fossil that links world heritage,” said Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum.

Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” found in Germany. The 47-million-year- old fossil suggests that Ida is a critical missing-link species in primate evolution. This fossil is thought to bridge the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their most distant relatives such as lemurs.

Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae has lemur-like skeleton features and primate-like aspects such as grasping hands, opposable thumbs, nails instead of claws.

At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. “From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there,” said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study with Jørn Hurum