Missing link in human evolution

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 May 2009 23:21 Written by InfoWeb

Scientists have discovered a 47-million-year-old fossil which could provide the missing link between animals and humans.

The skeleton was discovered 26 years ago in Germany and lost in museums, until a paleontologist realized that it could be the missing link in human evolution chain.

The oldest skeleton of a monkey found by now has been already called Ida and is almost 95% intact. The remnants of fur is visible, the fruits and leaves from creature’s last meal had been preserved in its stomach. Ida had four legs, long tail and was about the size of a small cat. Hands have five fingers like primates and the opposable thumb is human-like.

Details of the discovery were presented in May 2009 at New York's Museum of Natural History, at a special conference.

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, a creature had existed before that could have shared physical features of apes and humans. Until now have been found only Australopithecus, the Neanderthal man, the Ramaphitecus, etc., but some of them based on their physical features respond to be actual apes, or to close to humans (hominids).

An unfound creature that is a link between animals and humans is called "the missing-link of human evolution" and its discovery would prove the evolution theory.

The discovery of Ida skeleton is called “eighth wonder of the world” because it could be the missing-link in the human evolution chain. Thus, it’s another reason of debates between “evolutionists” and “creationists”.