Ida, Media Hype and Primate Evolution

The publication last week of a paper describing Darwinius masillae, a new fossil primate also known as “Ida”, generated massive hype for its claim that the fossil represents an early haplorhine – the “dry nosed” primates that include old world monkeys and apes, including humans.

Other scientists dispute the claim, arguing that the fossil may simply be an early type of lemur and not the “missing link” between the haplorhines and the “wet nosed” primates, the strepsirrhines, such as lemurs and lorises.

New Scientist met “father of Ida” Jørn Hurum, a palaeontologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, to ask him about the media frenzy – and about what lies ahead for the fossil, which was found in 1983 by private collectors in Messel, Germany.

The money spent on Ida – the starting price was $1 million – was that spent purely on the fact that it was an exceptionally preserved primate, or did it have something to do with its potential evolutionary relationship to humans?

No. We started off thinking it was the ancestor of all lemurs.

It may still turn out to be a lemur. Do you still have an open mind about that?

Of course, this is science. [Read more]

New Scientist, 27 May 2009 by Rowan Hooper and Colin Barras [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17202-qa-j%C3%B8rn-hurum-on-ida-media-hype-and-primate-evolution.html]