Ida: The Missing Link

Ida was discovered in 1983 in messel pit, a fossil site near Darmstadt, Germany. The original discoverer did not make known his findings May of 2009 when he decided to sell it to a fossil dealer by the name of Thomas Perner. Thomas Perner then in turn, sold the fossil to Dr. Jorn Hurum who was a paleontologist at Oslo University’s Natural History Museum. Hurum mentioned that he never saw the fossil in person, and purchased it after viewing only a handful of pictures. What Hurum did not disclose was how much the University was willing to pay for the fossil. He titled the fossil Ida because after studying the creature he concluded that it was in the same phase of maturity as his daughter who was named Ida. The research team led by Hurum came to this conclusion because they can tell the fossil still had not yet developed its permanent teeth. The research team had stated that they had been obtaining new information almost every day because in comparison to other fossils it is in unbelievable condition. Ida was at an evolutionary stage where the primate lineage evolved into two separate lines; one line involved the lemur and the other line was monkeys which in turn led to apes and then humans. Because of the absence of certain defining lemur characteristics, the research team has placed Ida in the ape/human line. They conclude that her species in the evolution chain would come just before that of the monkey. The cause of Ida’s death is still in question to the research team but they did come up with a few possibilities. Ida sustained a broken wrist which could have been detrimental to her gathering capabilities. If she was no longer being cared for by another and could no longer climb trees to gather water she would have had to go to a lake near messel pit which has been documented as having volcanic activity. She is suspected of having been preserved in the sediment at the bottom of the lake. The official, formal name of Ida is Darwinius Massilae which Hurum’s research team found appropriate because it was Darwin’s 200^th birthday this year.

References

Handwerk, Brian. ""MISSING LINK" FOUND: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs?" Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines National Geographic News. Web. 05 Dec. 2009. .

Randerson, James. "Fossil Ida: Extraordinary find is 'missing link' in evolution Science guardian.co.uk." Guardian.co.uk. Web. 05 Dec. 2009. -missing-link>.