So Ida wasn't the discovery that changed everything after all

I have been waiting patiently for this.

Sooner or later the over-the-top hype surrounding Darwinius masillae, or Ida, and its supposed importance to human evolution was going to fall apart and be exposed for what it was - bad science that had more to do with marketing than anything else.

How this particular fossil was going to change EVERYTHING was always difficult to see.

Brian Switek from the Laelaps blog set out the doubts and concerns he and many others felt about the way this discovery was marketed to the media and the public back in May here and here.

And now from this morning's issue of The Australian:

IT WAS billed as one of the most important fossil finds in history, a "missing link" that would challenge everything we knew about human evolution.

Darwinius masillae, the primitive primate that was unveiled to the world with huge fanfare and a Sir David Attenborough documentary in May, seems now to have been less of a missing link than an evolutionary dead end. Far from being an ancestor to humans, the lemur-like creature from 47 million years ago belongs to an entirely different branch of the primate family tree that has left no known descendants, research has indicated.

When Jorn Hurum, of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, announced the discovery of the astonishingly well-preserved fossil, he described it as "the first link to all humans". He nicknamed the animal "Ida" after his daughter, and a promotional website, a film and a book claimed that she could have been the common ancestor of all modern monkeys and apes, a relic of a critical branching moment in human evolution. Sir David, who narrated the documentary, said: "This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of all mammals. The link they would have said until now is missing, is no longer missing."

The discovery of fossils of another similar animal from 37 million years ago has now cast grave doubt on that idea. Both Darwinius masillae and the new primate, Afradapis longicristatus, appear to belong to a different lineage, closer to lemurs than monkeys and apes, that died out without modern descendants.

 

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Ardipithecus ramidus, human evolution & scientific hype

Two restorations of "Ardi", a 45% complete skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus published in this week's issue of Science.

Laelaps has an interesting blog post on this lovely collection of fossils. My interest here is chiefly about the growing tendency amongst some scientists to endulge in marketing spin in relation to their discoveries.

While I can understand the desire to bring science to as wide an audience as possible, the danger is that difficult and complex things get dumbed down in the process and that frankly untrue, or at least exaggerated, claims are made.

So the distinction between "Ardi" and good science (in my opinion) on one side and Ida and spin doctoring on the other is an important one.

At long last, meet Ardipithecus ramidus

The stories of "Ida" and "Ardi" could hardly be more different.

Ida was a lemur-like primate that lived 47 million years ago in an area that is now Messel, Germany. Ardi was much closer to us; she was one of the earliest hominins and lived 4.4 million years ago in what would become known as Ethiopia.

When the bones of Ida were discovered they were held in a private collection for years before being sold for an undisclosed sum to paleontologist Jorn Hurum. The first bones of Ardi were found in the field in 1992 by paleoanthropologist Gen Suwa. Enough fossils were found for an initial publication two years later, but the search continued for years afterward. That search has yielded over 100 bones from Ardi's kind, representing about 36 individuals. Ardi is the most complete individual, with about 45% of the skeleton intact.

From almost the time of her acquisition by Hurum, Ida was groomed to be a star. The media company Atlantic Productions began to work with Hurum and immediately started the production of a book, several documentaries, and a bombastic public unveiling of a discovery they said would "CHANGE EVERYTHING." The scientists describing Ida were forced to rush their study to meet the deadline set by the company The bones of Ardi and her kin, by contrast, were scrutinized with great detail over 15 years. So secret was the study of her bones that some frustrated paleoanthropologists called it the "Manhattan Project of anthropology."

Ida was introduced to the public as the "ancestor of us all", but the science behind this claim was flimsy. She was more closely related to lemurs than to us. Ardi, however, sits relatively close to the base of the human (i.e. hominin) family tree. Whether our species can trace its ancestral heritage back through hers will be something that will be debated in the months and years to come, but she is nevertheless one of our closest extinct relatives.

Ardi, of course, is short for Ardipithecus ramidus, one of the earliest hominins found to date. Her skeleton (see image below), as well as bits and pieces of other skeletons of the same species, were described this week in a special edition of the journal Science.

The whole thing is well worth a read.

Additional reporting:

The New York Times

The Daily Mail

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