The Link - Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor - BBC

The Link - Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor - BBC

Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link, tells the story of an important scientific development that could tell us more about where we come from.

The fossil, known as Ida, could be an indication of one of the roots of anthropoid evolution -- the point at which our primate ancestors began first developing the features that would evolve into our own.

Is David Attenborough set to reveal the Missing Link in human evolution?

The BBC has made an extraordinary new documentary, presented by Sir David Attenborough, which will reveal the discovery of a fossilised skeleton that may be a vital 'missing link' in human evolution.

The centrepiece of the programme is the unveiling of the first-ever complete skeleton of an extinct animal called an adapid.

The fossilised bones, which are thought to be between 37 and 47million years old, were found in Germany's Messel Shale Pit, a disused quarry near Frankfurt famous for its fossils.

The team who examined the young female animal say it has some resemblance to a lemur, a mammal with a distinctive tail that is found to this day in the forests of Madagascar.

But Sir David's documentary will explain that the researchers have, controversially, concluded the fossil 'is not simply a lemur' but from a related group of primates which evolved into monkeys, apes and human beings.

The BBC programme is based on a scientific study to be published by the Public Library of Science, a leading academic journal with offices in Cambridge and San Francisco.

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[Jimboman300]

It does bother me that they lable this fossil as our earliest ancestor. Even if this creature is a common ancestor of all dry nosed primates it certainly isn't our earliest one. Questions like what was our first ancester that wasn't an ancestor of chimps or the first ancester with a brain as big as ours means something but the question of what our earliest ancestor means nothing at all

[AtheistsAreSkeptics]

@Jimboman300

Please read the video description above.. thanks.,

[ilovelani69]

The most beautiful thing is that we are all interconnected to every creature and living thing on this earth.

[wanker4761]

@ilovelani69 Let's all join hands and sing Kumbaya

[MrThannipuzha]

I am not an expert but just doubts is it selective breading of similar animal groups eventually made evolution (just like children carrying similar characteristics of their parents or some thing like beautiful parents (the characters human race consider as beautiful) usually get beautiful children)

[tincannabiscuits]

we are all animals. every child is a new creature not identical to the parent

[ninadesianti]

The reconstruction is amazing!!! Evolution is a fact!!!

[boxlightener]

we dont have a big brain and yes human is animal so what? do you feel lucky.?

just stop fighting!

stop war this is your history!

there is no god we are all simple!

beasts.

[Jimboman300]

@Zeuts85 Our earliest ancestor if there even is such a thing was a macromolocule in boiling pool on the early Earth. I don't mean to trash this find which is an amazing fossil without a doubt but our earliest ancestor this is certainly not. It may well be a common ancestor of most of the worlds primates which is still incredible to say the least

[Zeuts85]

@Jimboman300 Don't they mean it's the earliest KNOWN ancestor of all people that are alive today?

[imawakeish]

alien slaves