The Missing Link?

May 20, 2010
HISTORY SPECIAL DOCUMENTING DISCOVERY TO AIR MAY 25 AT 9PM ET/PT


HISTORY CHANNEL™, THE UNIVERSITY OF OSLO AND THE SENCKENBERG RESEARCH INSTITUTE REVEAL LANDMARK SCIENTIFIC FIND

47 Million Year Old Primate Fossil Set to Revolutionize Understanding of Human Evolution


HISTORY, together with the University of Oslo and the Senckenberg Research Institute, today reveal a landmark scientific find: the 47 million year old fossilized remains of a primate. The most complete fossil primate ever found, the young female specimen — known as "Ida" — is set to revolutionize our understanding of human evolution. Twenty times older than most fossils that explain human evolution, "Ida" is a transitional species showing characteristics from the very primitive non-human evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but she is more related to the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes and humans). This places Ida at the very root of anthropoid evolution — when primates were first developing the features that would evolve into our own. The scientists' findings are published today by PLoS One, the open source journal of the Public Library of Science.

The find is lauded as the most important scientific discovery of recent times. HISTORY will premiere the major television special —"THE LINK"— chronicling the discovery and study of the fossil. The two-hour program, produced by London-based Atlantic Productions, will air on HISTORY on Monday, May 25 at 9pm ET/PT. "THE LINK" is presented with limited commercials made possible by Ally Bank.

Source: Image Net.