The Link
Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
By: Colin Tudge, Josh Young
Published: May 20, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN: 9780316070089
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Ida looks innocent enough at first glance. A closer look reveals a 47 million year old fossil of a female, that may represent the so-called "missing link" in the primate family. The almost perfectly preserved fossil of Ida, discovered in Messel, Germany, may be the earliest known ancestor of humans. The story of Ida, and the scientific team led by Jorn Hurum of Norway who examined her fossilized remains, is described in wonderful detail by science writer Colin Tudge in his important book The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor.
Ida (photo left) lived 47 million years ago in the much warmer climate of the Eocene Epoch. Her home was near a crater lake, where she may have drowned due to poisonous gas escaping from the water. Her entire body was preserved in the mud bottom of the lake, as she became fossilized. The fossil was discovered by a private collector in the 1980s, and later sold to a museum in Oslo, Norway. Author Colin Trudge describes how a team of world renowned scientists confirmed her importance to the study of primate evolution. The author also provides a detailed portrait of the Eocene world, that was very different in climate and global geography from our own, of which Ida was a resident.
Colin Tudge (photo left) also provides a strong outline of the various controversies surrounding the importance of Ida's discovery. Not all scientists agree that Ida is a "missing link" and there is even doubt about her primate origins. The author, through discussions with the scientific team, presents a solid and convincing case that Ida is is indeed one of the most important fossil discoveries of all time. At the same time, Colin Tudge shares the vital information that the study of Ida is nowhere near completion. The little fossil has many more secrets to reveal, and may change even more long held scientific paradigms. The crucial point is that science adds onto what is already known, questioning claims made for every new discovery, resulting in deeper research and even more often startling answers.
For me, the power of the book is the even handed, objective story of the important fossil called Ida. her discovery, her scientific study by a team led by Jorn Hurum (who named Ida after his five year old daughter), the world in which she lived, and her value to science are described well and with an open mind. Colin Tudge does share the enthusiasm for Ida, with the famous scientists on the research team, but maintains an even handed approach to her fascinating discovery. Indeed, the telling of the story of Ida is gripping, and places the reader in Ida's Eocene world, and into modern scientific study, with equal interest.
I highly recommend the must read book The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor by Colin Tudge, to anyone fascinated by human origins, and the discovery of what may prove to be one of humanities very earliest ancestors. The chance discovery of Ida represents a true turning point in primate and human evolutionary history. As a result, Ida will find herself, as Jorn Hurum predicts, in the pages of every scientific textbook in the future.
Read the fascinating and intriguing The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor by Colin Tudge, and be swept away bu the wondrous story of Ida and her place in the human family album. The story preserved in the little fossil Ida is really the story of ourselves.
