Scientists have debunked the hypothesis that the missing link between humans and primates

The newly discovered fossils of extinct species of primates from northern Egypt indicate that the previously found remains of a prehistoric mammal, named Darwinius masillae and widely known under the name "Ida", are not the remains of a primitive form of one of the distant ancestors of man, and the shape of convergent evolution of groups primates, closer to the lemur, suggest the authors of the study, published in the journal Nature.

The well-preserved complete skeleton of Ida, with the fossilized remains of her last meal, which was unveiled in May 2009, accompanied by a scholarly article in the journal PLoS ONE, where the study's lead author Joern Hurum (Jorn Hurum) from the Norwegian Natural History Museum in Oslo has stressed that skeleton of this rule bears some characteristics peculiar to the higher apes and man. These include the absence of the so-called "ridge teeth" - slightly elongated front incisors and canines protruding, as well as a special type of claws on their hind legs, which use primitive species of primate to clean their wool.

This circumstance has allowed scientists to conclude that the animal belonged not to the lemur, who walk in the suborder Strepsirrhini, but was representative of the emerging suborder evolutionarily more advanced goose monkeys, which include many species of apes and man himself.

The new fossil, dubbed Afradapis longicristatus, belongs to the same group of extinct primitive apes, called adapidami as Ida. Thus, afradapis was born 10 million years later, Ida, and his remains were not found in the territory of modern Germany, and in northern Egypt.

22 October 2009 | author, egypt, group, journal, man, primacy, remains, shape, type

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