Ida not the holy grail

10/28/2009

I expected this. And so did several other science writers (and probably scientists). After the scientists that discovered the "missing link" Darwinius raised a huge hoop-la in May of this year (which I wrote about on this blog Ancient primate ancestor- Holy grail or hype?) a new scientific analysis by a different team of scientists showed that Darwinius is not likely closely related to modern primates at all but more similar and more closely related to lemurs - the fun and funky primates that presently live on Madagascar alone. As I wrote in my previous skeptical blog post, anytime scientists make such a big hoop-la about a finding, and it comes with a book, a TV documentary, and such hyped up statements like "When our results are published it will be just like an asteroid hitting the earth," be wary.

Check out the Discovery News article, 'Missing Link' Primate fossil debunked for more info, plus a response from the original scientists. The Darwinius study was not a hoax, but the interpretation of its significance was way overhyped and, as many expected, turned out to most likely be wrong. That kind of hype ends up giving science and scientists a bad image and makes the general public trust science less, which is not what is needed at this point in history. Science operates in piecemeal fashion, and most scientists are fairly humble about the significance of their findings, no matter how important it may be. Charles Darwin is a great example of that.

And on that note, stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on "Ardi" (Ardipithecus) which is an ancient primate species that anthropologist Tim White and his colleagues have been studying for decades, unearthing hundreds of bones from dozens of individuals, but may actually be a long-past human ancestor, which brings several surprises. White and colleagues recently published information on a nearly intact skeleton in Science. This method of slow-cooked science is far more legit than publishing and then promoting a find so hugely to the media. Not only that, this fossil find is far more interesting in terms of its revolutionizing our understanding of human origins. Stay tuned as I'll have more to say on that in a couple days!