Darwinius
| Darwinius | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plate A (inventory number PMO 214.214) of the holotype |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Eocene | ||||||||||||
| 47 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Darwinius | ||||||||||||
| Franzen , Gingerich , Habersetzer , Hurum , Koenigswald & Smith , 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Darwinius is a primate kind from the group of the extinct adapiformes .
The approximately 47 million year old fossil remains from the Eocene were discovered in 1983 in the Messel pit near Darmstadt (Germany) and scientifically described in 2009 by an international research group led by the Norwegian paleontologist Jørn H. Hurum . The only species described ( type species ) is Darwinius masillae . The genus and species are documented by the holotype , which consists of a plate and the counterplate. This individual ("Ida") is one of the most complete finds of a fossil primate.
The systematic position of Darwinius is controversial, but it is not an immediate human ancestor or a " missing link ".
features
panel B the left side, which is mirrored for better comparability.
The fossil pictured here has a total length of 58 centimeters. Since it comes from a young animal whose permanent teeth are just erupting, further growth is to be inferred. The head-torso length of the fossil is 24 centimeters, that of the adult is estimated at 28 centimeters. The tail of the fossil was therefore longer than the rest of the body. Various calculations put the weight of the adult animal at 0.7 to 1.7 kilograms.
The muzzle was short, the lower jaw strong. The eyes were relatively large, and the auricles, preserved as skin shadows, were small. The skull was voluminous and should have contained a comparatively large brain . The teeth of the holotype are partly still milk teeth , partly already erupted permanent teeth. In contrast to wet nasal primates living today , the front teeth of the lower jaw did not form a tooth comb .
The spine was composed of seven cervical , eleven thoracic , seven lumbar , three cross and 31 tail vertebrae .
The hands were strongly built and carried five fingers, which, like most of today's primates , were provided with fingernails . The thumb was relatively small and short, but could be placed opposite the other fingers and thus enabled a secure grip in the branches. The feet were also large, the first toe greatly elongated and opposable. In contrast to today's wet nose primates, the second toe did not have a cleaning claw .
Paleobiology
From the structure of the trunk and limbs it can be concluded that Darwinius was a tree dweller who moved through the branches with the help of all four limbs. He couldn't make long leaps. The big eyes speak for a nocturnal lifestyle. The structure of the teeth and remains in the digestive tract indicate that this primate ate fruits, seeds and leaves. There is no evidence that it ate insects or other animal prey.
The individual "Ida"
The fossil of the holotype was named "Ida" after the daughter of the scientist Jørn H. Hurum. Since, in contrast to closely related findings, no penis bone (baculum) was found in the animal , the researchers concluded that it must have been a female. "Ida" sank in the lake after her death, possibly being stunned by carbon dioxide vapors. There are no bite marks that indicate a predator or a scavenger.
Systematics
Darwinius is classified within the primates in the Adapiformes or Adapoidea, a group that lived mainly in the Eocene and Oligocene on the continents of the northern hemisphere and is now extinct. Within the Adapiformes it is incorporated into the family of the Notharctidae .
Up until the scientific description of the fossil "Ida", the Adapiformes were considered to be representatives of the wet-nosed primates (Strepsirrhini), i.e. relatives of the lemurs and Lori-like species that are still alive today . However, according to the first descriptor, the finds by Darwinius show some parallels to the dry- nosed primates (Haplorrhini), which is why they interpret the newly described genus and the entire Adapiformes as representatives of this primate subordination. Darwinius , however, cannot yet be interpreted as a primitive representative of the apes (Anthropoidea).
In October 2009, Afradapis, a close relative of Darwinius , who lived in what is now Egypt in the late Eocene , was described. After a detailed phylogenetic analysis, Eric Seiffert et al., The first to describe it, placed the Adapiformes and thus Darwinius back in the wet-nosed primates as sister taxons of today's forms. Blythe A. Williams et al. Argued similarly in 2009, while Philip D. Gingerich et al. immediately kept. The exact systematic position of Darwinius is therefore still unclear.
| Primates (Primates) |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Naming and discovery
The name of the genus honors the British naturalist Charles Darwin , whose 200th birthday was celebrated in the year it was first described. Type species and the only known species is Darwinius masillae , the specific epithet masillae is Messel's name in the medieval Lorsch Codex .
The finds in Messel are dated to the early Middle Eocene ( Lutetian ) to an age of around 47 million years .
After it was found by a hobby paleontologist in 1983, the fossil came into the possession of a private collector who did not realize its value. Later, the fossil's A-plate, which supports most of the bones, came into the possession of a dealer who sold it to Norwegian paleontologist Jørn H. Hurum of the Natural History Museum at Oslo University in 2007 for about $ 750,000 . The B-plate, the negative impression of the fossil, was added (partly inapplicable) - probably to increase the selling price. The B-plate is in a private museum in Wyoming , USA. The publication of the find is based on an examination of both plates.
The owner of "Ida" offered them anonymously for sale in Germany in 2007. But the fossil was simply too expensive, said Marie-Luise Frey, the head of the Messel Visitor Center. The Senckenberg House and the Hessian State Museum did not strike either.
The presentation of the find took place with great media effort, which in part met with skepticism and even rejection from research colleagues. The fossil researchers describe their discovery as the "eighth wonder of the world" and compare it to the discovery of Noah's Ark . At the time of the announcement, a website already existed ( revealing the link ), and a documentary film and a book were announced. Hurum said that scientists should think more like pop musicians or athletes in this regard.
Ownership claims
In July 2009, proportionate claims to the find were made in the press by the Zweckverband Abfallverwertung Südhessen as the former owner of the Messel pit, who had been building a garbage dump in the fossil site for years. "We will have this checked legally," announced Edwin Christl, the then managing director of the Zweckverband: "Then we will subsequently demand what is due to us." And: "I have always assumed that the finds were excavated exclusively for scientific purposes . "
literature
- Jens L. Franzen , Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald , B. Holly Smith: Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology . In: PLoS ONE . tape 4 , no. 5 , 2009, p. e5723 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005723 .
- Colin Tudge, Josh Young: The Link. Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestors. Little, Brown and Company, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-316-07008-9 .
Movie
- The secret discovery. Documentation, Great Britain, Germany, 2009, 42:30 min., Written and directed by Tim Walker, production: BBC / History, ZDF , series: Terra X , first broadcast: May 31, 2009
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ JL Franzen , PD Gingerich, J. Habersetzer, JH Hurum , W. von Koenigswald, BH Smith: Complete primate skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: morphology and paleobiology. In: PloS one. Volume 4, number 5, 2009, ISSN 1932-6203 , p. E5723, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005723 , PMID 19492084 , PMC 2683573 (free full text).
- ↑ a b Werner Breunig: Ida's cradle. In: FAZ.net . May 21, 2009, accessed April 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Erik R. Seiffert, Jonathan MG Perry, Elwyn L. Simons and Doug M. Boyer: Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. In: Nature. Volume 461, number 7267, October 2009, ISSN 1476-4687 , pp. 1118-1121, doi: 10.1038 / nature08429 , PMID 19847263 . See also report at the-scientist.com
- ^ Blythe A. Williams, Richard F. Kay, E. Christopher Kirk and Callum F. Ross: Darwinius masillae is a strepsirrhine - a reply to Franzen et al. (2009). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 59, Number 5, 2010, pp. 567-573 doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2010.01.003
- ↑ Philip D. Gingerich, Jens L. Franzen, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum and B. Holly Smith: Darwinius masillae is a Haplorhine - Reply to Williams et al. (2010). In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 59, Number 5, November 2010, pp. 574-579 doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2010.07.013
- ↑ a b c d "Norske forskere: - Har funnet" the missing link "" ( Memento from May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Aftenposten , May 19, 2009, (Norwegian)
- ↑ Meike Mittmeyer: Primeval monkey “Ida” conquers hearts by storm. (No longer available online.) In: echo-online.de. November 20, 2011, archived from the original on December 28, 2011 ; Retrieved April 28, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ hda / dpa : Fossil marketing: Frankfurt researchers reject criticism. In: Spiegel Online . May 21, 2009, accessed April 28, 2015 .
- ↑ "Ancient primate fossil is neither a lemur nor a real ape" , Spektrumdirekt , May 20, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.extratipp.com/news/aufreger/streit-messel-millionen-gruben-besitzer- sucht-artikel- 481941.html ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Terra X - 058 - The Secret Discovery - Riddles of Primeval Times
Web links
- Revealing the link
- University of Oslo Questions and Answers on "Ida"
- high resolution photography of the fossil
- 3D reconstruction , The Guardian , May 20, 2009
- “A kind of eighth wonder of the world. Fossil Ida is considered the ancestor of monkeys and humans ” , Deutschlandradio , May 25, 2009, Jens Franzen in conversation
- Researchers remove Ida from the human family tree. , Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 22, 2009
