Missing Link…

…but the wrong chain?

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.

This is how real science, and scientists, are supposed to work.

One Response to “Missing Link…”

1. Gary from Jersey says:

   October 23, 2009 at 11:15 am

   Well, that rules out tracing algore’s family tree all the way back.