Ida: Darwinius masillae

Location:
Exhibit Museum of Natural History - 1109 Geddes Avenue

Description:
"Ida," a new exhibit in the Exhibit Museum's Rotunda, displays a high-resolution cast of an extremely rare fossil discovered in 1983 near Messel, Germany, but only recently made available for study. The fossil has proven to be a “link” between the prosimian and simian ("anthropoid") primate lineages. It has "advanced" front teeth (incisors and canines) and second toes like those of monkeys, and is broadly representative of what human primate ancestors may have looked like during the Eocene epoch 47 million years ago. Ida (prounded "eeda") is named after after the daughter of Dr Jørn Hurum, the Norwegian vertebrate paleontologist who secured one section of the fossil from an anonymous owner, and led the research. Ida was about eight months old, or the equivalent of a six-year-old human. Publication of a paper on the discovery was accompanied by a book, The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestors by Colin Tudge, and a documentary shown on the History Channel (US), BBC One (UK),and various stations in Germany and Norway. U-M paleontologist Philip Gingerich and U-M anthropologist B. Holly Smith were two members of the "dream team" invited to study Ida. The exhibit will be on display through May 2010.