Ida Missed Her Link to Humans | The Institute for Creation Research

Ida Missed Her Link to Humans

This past May, a fossil nicknamed Ida was loudly heralded by the evolutionary scientific community as the long-sought-after "missing link" that supposedly proved ape-to-human evolution. Directly following the unveiling, ICR News reported reasons why Ida, in fact, linked nothing, being merely an extinct variety of lemur.1

ICR News also predicted what has now occurred with Ida’s popularity campaign, stating, "After further study, however, this claim will be quietly rescinded."2 Ida has been surreptitiously swept under the rug with significantly less fanfare than when she was initially…and incorrectly…hailed as the missing link.

After having further analyzed the data published on Ida, which was scientifically named Darwinius in honor of the late British naturalist, more paleontologists are now expressing their doubts about the fossil’s relevance. In fact, Richard Kay of Duke University told Scientific American that creatures like Ida "are decidedly not in the direct line leading to living monkeys, apes and humans."3

Certain traits of Ida’s lower jaw were hyped as being critical indicators of her transitional status between adapiforms (an extinct group of lemur look-alikes) and anthropoid apes, which according to evolutionary definitions include humans. However, her partially fused lower jaw structure also appears sporadically in various other mammals. This distribution flies in the face of Darwinian "tree of life" reconstructions, but it follows a mosaic pattern of shared characteristics among disparate forms that is consistent with creation science predictions. This seems to be a trend in primate fossils that are portrayed by the evolutionary establishment as being among humanity’s ancestors.4

Ida’s jaw does not show evolutionary development, and the fossilized creature’s total failure to provide any "transitional" evidence caused Robert Martin of the Field Museum in Chicago to conclude, "I am utterly convinced that Darwinius has nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of higher primates."3

ICR News concurs, and would add that these statements…un-trumpeted and un-marketed…are quite the opposite in both volume and content from the bold and loud proclamations of Ida’s significance upon her "unveiling." Unfortunately, few outside of paleontological academia will hear these expert voices, only having been exposed to the local evening news or to the Google web search site, both of which featured Ida in her false loftiness, and neither of which now feature Ida in her true guise of a well-preserved, but otherwise inconsequential, extinct lemur.

References

  1. Thomas, B. and F. Sherwin. Ida: Separating the Science from the Media Campaign. ICR News. Posted on icr.org May 22, 2009, accessed September 10, 2009. See also Thomas, B. 2009. The Ida Fossil: A Clever Campaign for a Lackluster 'Link.' Acts & Facts. 38 (7): 17.
  2. Thomas, B. New Fossil Hype Fits Old Pattern. ICR News. Posted on icr.org May 27, 2009, accessed September 11, 2009.
  3. Wong, K. August 2009. Weak Link: Fossil Darwinius Has Its 15 Minutes. Scientific American.
  4. Thomas, B. Flat-Faced Fossil Fails to Fit Evolution. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 18, 2009, accessed September 10, 2009.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on September 15, 2009.

The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Homo Naledi: The Lies Behind Evolution's Rising Star | The Creation...
Homo naledi, once evolution's 'rising star,' was considered to be a prime example of human evolution. But is it really proof? Or...

NEWS
A Subsurface Ocean on Mimas?
Scientists have analyzed data obtained from the Cassini spacecraft and concluded that irregularities in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas indicate...

NEWS
In Theaters March 20 & 21: The Ark and the Darkness
Is Genesis true? What about Noah’s Flood? How did Noah fit the animals on the ark? Wasn’t it a local flood? Have you asked these questions? Though...

NEWS
Enigmatic Fossil Plants
The pre-Flood world thousands of years ago was unlike the world of today.1 Unfamiliar animals and plants were common, and there were a lot...

NEWS
Surprisingly Colorful Fossil Snail Shells
Finding organic compounds such as flexible dinosaur collagen and complete bone cells1,2 is becoming common, much to the shock and consternation...

NEWS
March 2024 ICR Wallpaper
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." (Matthew 28:6 NKJV) ICR March 2024 wallpaper is now available for mobile, tablet,...

CREATION PODCAST
Homo Erectus: The Shocking Truth About the "Ape Man"...
Homo erectus, or "Upright Man," has been upheld as a piece of mankind's "evolutionary history" since its discovery in 1891....

NEWS
Mystery of Moths' Warning Sound
Insects of all types continue to amaze entomologists with their design and physiology. Cleveland Hickman, Jr., et al. stated, “insect ears are...

NEWS
Geneticist Fired for Affirming Humans Once Lived 900 Years?
Geneticist Alexander Kudryavtsev, the head of the Russian Academy of Science’s Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, has been fired, reportedly...

ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Solar Eclipses
Designed by Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover fun facts...