🦣 MammalsPaleogeneWell known

Darwinius ('Ida')

Darwinius masillae

Ida is one of the best-preserved fossil mammals ever found and an example of how media attention and science can clash.

Image: Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer1, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald, B. Holly Smith · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

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Characteristics

Scientific name: Darwinius masillae
Period: Middle Eocene (Lutetian)
Lived: 47.5–47 Ma (47.5 million years ago)
Diet: Herbivore
Habitat: Forest
Length (estimate): 0.58 m
Discovered/described: 1983 · amateur collectors (announced in 2009)

Description

Darwinius was a small primate with a long tail and grasping hands, related to today's lemurs and lorises. The only specimen, 'Ida', is a 58-centimetre juvenile female that even preserves impressions of fur and remains of her last meal: fruit and leaves. In 2009 she was presented with great media fanfare as a 'missing link' to humans, but most researchers disagree.

Habitat

Subtropical forest around a volcanic crater lake, present-day Messel.

Fossil sites

Messel Pit, Hesse
Cultural profile: Germany →

Famous finds

Iconic fossil
Ida
Darwinius ('Ida') · PMO 214.214
Found in 1983 by an amateur collector
Messel Pit, Hesse
Museum: Natural History Museum, Oslo
The fossil was dug up by an amateur in 1983 and sold in two halves separately, which were only reunited in 2007. With impressions of fur and stomach contents, it is one of the most complete fossil primates ever found.
Darwinius ('Ida') →
Image: Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer1, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald, B. Holly Smith · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Sources: Wikipedia: Darwinius

Contemporaries in the database

Sources: Darwinius

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