The press (including Google.com [see picture]) have had a field day with the recent discovery and presentation of Ida, a strikingly complete fossil of a 47 million year old primate, of the genus adapiform, heralding it as the missing link between us humans and... something or other.
Whether the very concept of a missing link is helpful is another matter. For now, a lot of science writers are irked by the mere hype surrounding this fossil and its purported import, which will allegedly change everything we think about the evolution of primates. Why the irksomeness? Well, as Carl Zimmer explains, despite the splendor of the fossil's pristine condition, it doesn't tell us much more than we already knew.
"The fossil is nice because it is so complete, but it is a rather vanilla-flavored adapiform that does not differ appreciably from other members of that well-known group of Eocene primates…"
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