Darwinius

Primary slab of the holotype and only known specimen

Darwinius is a genus of primitive primate from the Eocene of Germany. It is often lauded as the "missing link" between early and advanced primates.

Description

Darwinius is known from only one skeleton (nicknamed "Ida"), missing only its left rear leg. A juvenile female, it measures 58 centimeters in length from head to tail, and resembles a modern lemur in body shape. Along with the skeleton, impressions of fur have been preserved, as well as the animal's stomach contents of fruit and leaves.

Classification

The single species, Darwinius masillae, was placed in the Notharctidae family of adapiform primates by its original discoverers. This is not a classification shared by all scientists, however.

History

The Darwinius specimen was originally discovered in 1983 at the Messel shale pit near Frankfurt, Germany as a slab and counter slab, which were at some point separated. The counter slab was embellished with fake parts and delivered to a Wyoming museum in 1991. It was soon revealed that the specimen was a composite.

The primary slab remained in Germany in the hands of a private collector, and after twenty years it was sold to a fossil dealer. In 2006, Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum met with the dealer, who showed him photographs of the skeleton and stated that the asking price for the specimen was $1 million. Realizing the importance of the fossil, Hurum persuaded the Natural History Museum of Oslo to provide funding to buy the specimen, after he proved that it was not a fake. The specimen was then studied in secret for two years, and was officially described in 2009 accompanied by extensive media hype.

Paleobiology

Reconstructions of the specimen's teeth reveal that it was not yet fully grown and ate leaves and seeds. Its right wrist was also recovering from a recent fracture, which may have contributed to the animal's death in some form.