Ida: The missing link.

**Barreldriver** · 05-20-2009, 04:17 PM

http://www.revealingthelink.com/who-is-ida/idas-anatomy

There's something strikingly familiar about Ida's skeleton. That's because, like us, Ida is a primate. She lived around the time that primates split into two major groups. The prosimians are the non-human branch who have survived mainly as modern lemurs. The anthropoids are the other branch - from which humans evolved.

Ida's skeleton has some early anthropoid traits. These foreshadow physical features which later appear in monkeys, apes, and of course, humans. So although Ida was a primitive primate who lived 47 million years ago, her anatomy has remarkable similarities to our own.

**Lenny** · 05-20-2009, 05:13 PM

That's the 47-million-year-old primate skeleton they discovered in Germany recently, right?

What I want to know is, since when have lower simians lived in Europe - and northern Europe at that?

If they did live in Europe in the past, then perhaps the elusive European Australopithecus may yet be found. If nonAfrican australopithecenes are ever found, that'll be a giant nail in the coffin of the "Out of Africa theory".

The general theory among non-OoA'ers is that Australopithecus spread across the globe, and then began to diverge 3 or 4 million years ago. From that:

European Australopithecus-->European Erectus-->Neanderthal
West-Asian Australopithecus-->West-Asian Erectus-->ProtoCaucasoids
East-Asian Australopithecus-->East-Asian Erectus-->ProtoMongoloids
African Australopithecus-->African Erectus-->ProtoNegroids
...and a smattering of less-important isolates (homo floriensis) or throwbacks (e.g. today's Australoids as a surviving late-Erectus).

These have been distinct genepools for at least two million years; gene flow did occur, though, spurring parallel evolution and keeping us one species. (See here for more discussion on the non-OoA human-evolution subject).

The weakness with this theory is that evidence of non-African australopithecenes has never been found: Australopithecene skeletons have only ever been found in the Rift Valley of East Africa, an ideal place for preservation of bones. Most experts are thus forced to believe that they only existed in Africa.

If a nonAfrican Australopithecus is discovered, Out-of-Africa will be disproved in one fell swoop.