Darwinius masillae, mais um 'elo perdido' que vai pra lata de lixo da História da Ciência

'Missing Link' Fossil Was Not Human Ancestor as Claimed, Anthropologists Say

ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2010) — A fossil that was celebrated last year as a possible "missing link" between humans and early primates is actually a forebearer of modern-day lemurs and lorises, according to two papers by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University and the University of Chicago.

In an article now available online in the Journal of Human Evolution, four scientists present evidence that the 47-million-year-old Darwinius masillae is not a haplorhine primate like humans, apes and monkeys, as the 2009 research claimed.

Radiographs of the type specimen of Darwinius masillae, new genus and species, from Messel in Germany. (Credit: Franzen JL, Gingerich PD, Habersetzer J, Hurum JH, von Koenigswald W, et al. Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4(5): e5723 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723)

They also note that the article onDarwinius published last year in the journal PLoS ONE ignores two decades of published research showing that similar fossils are actually strepsirrhines, the primate group that includes lemurs and lorises.

"Many lines of evidence indicate thatDarwinius has nothing at all to do with human evolution," says Chris Kirk, associate professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. "Every year, scientists describe new fossils that contribute to our understanding of primate evolution. What's amazing about Darwinius is, despite the fact that it's nearly complete, it tells us very little that we didn't already know from fossils of closely related species."

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Darwinius masillae is a strepsirrhine—a reply to Franzen et al. (2009)

Blythe A. Williamsa, , , Richard F. Kaya, E. Christopher Kirkb andCallum F. Rossc

a Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA

b Department of Anthropology University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA

c Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Received 28 June 2009;
accepted 2 November 2009.
Available online 26 February 2010. 

Keywords: Primate phylogeny; Anthropoid origins; Eocene

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