Friday, May 22, 2009

Ida Who?

I think you ought to know that it is very controversial as to whether this fossil is transitional. It's an adapid, the view that adapids gave rise to anthropoids (and consequently humans) is controversial:

"Researchers have been trying to trace the origins of anthropoids--a group of higher primates that include apes, monkeys, and humans--for decades. The earliest undisputed fossils of anthropoids lived in Egypt between 32 million and 35 million years ago. In the past 15 years, researchers have found older fossils, including Eosimias, that lived 45 million years ago in China and India--and most researchers argue that these diminutive fossils either are the earliest anthropoids or are their close relatives. A few researchers, however, argue instead that anthropoids arose from a more primitive group of primates--so-called adapids."

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/519/1

Honestly, I think the folks who found this fossil are hyping it up a bit for cash (they're selling a book on it called 'The Link') and are not seriously sending the message that their views are minority (For example, the website http://www.revealingthelink.com/ presents nothing but the view that this fossil is unquestionably of a group ancestral to us).

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