last night the history channel premiered a documentary on an incredible new discovery, a missing link in human evolution. they announced the discovery of a 47 million year old almost perfectly preserved fossil of a creature that may be the species that represents the branching of primate evolution into the human and non-human lines... basically it was a monkey-lemur, having features of both. i wish i could show a picture of Ida (the fossil's given name) here, but you'll have to click the link above - as the history channel owns every image of it and is enforcing. this is the best i can do.
this discovery is fascinating for several reasons - not the least of which being how this discovery was announced; there was a carefully calculated media campaign coordinated by the history channel. the view is that the announcement of groundbreaking discoveries needs to be managed like a teen pop star.
*non-nerd-note: lucy is the name of the fossil which proved beyond a doubt that we evolved from apes. she lived about 3.5 million years ago and was the first ape-like species to walk upright.
i want one.
ReplyDeleteturns out that the claims about ida were bogus
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/science/23fossil.html?_r=1&ref=science