Ida isn't 'missing link' after all

October 22, 9:33 AMScience ExaminerTrina Hoaks

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47 million year old fossilized remains of a primate called "Ida."
AP

It was reported yesterday that the 47-million-year-old skeletal fossil dubbed Ida that was unveiled in May isn't a 'missing link' after all. Even at the time of the unveiling, some experts said that Ida was not of the same ancestry line as monkeys, apes, and humans. In fact, they said it wasn't even close.

According to the Associated Press report, Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York said that "Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be." Rather, it was said, Ida "falls into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs."

Ida is said  to represent a previously unknown primate species called Darwinius. And, according to the report, the cat-sized creature "is an example of a group of primates called adapoids."


Read more about this story:
Primate fossil called only a distant relative