Haha dude I'm the biggest atheist you will ever meet. I'm not saying I don't believe the thing to actually physically exist, it just seems odd. The find was apparently 'kept secret' until a movie, a book and a dog-and-pony show were all produced, out of the public eye and out of the eye of peer review. Findings with implications as potentially influential as these often require months of review by various groups within the scientific community. Further, the response of many scientists declaring Ida's significance to have been overstated hardly got the press coverage that was awarded to the initial announcements that "the missing link" had been found. It just seems like the PR direction behind this aims to exploit the hype and bring in money (not that that's anything new).
EDIT: Here's a recent post from New Scientist's curator David Beard:
'Uniquely for primate fossils this old, Ida's stomach contents and a few aspects of her soft anatomy are preserved. Like all adapiforms, Ida lacked a "toothcomb" at the front of her lower jaw – a structure that living lemurs use for grooming fur. Ida also lacked a "grooming claw" on her second toe, another difference from living lemurs. Otherwise, Ida's overall proportions and anatomy resemble that of a lemur, and the same is true for other adapiform primates.
What does Ida's anatomy tell us about her place on the family tree of humans and other primates? The fact that she retains primitive features that commonly occurred among all early primates, such as simple incisors rather than a full-fledged toothcomb, indicates that Ida belongs somewhere closer to the base of the tree than living lemurs do.
But this does not necessarily make Ida a close relative of anthropoids – the group of primates that includes monkeys, apes – and humans. In order to establish that connection, Ida would have to have anthropoid-like features that evolved after anthropoids split away from lemurs and other early primates. Here, alas, Ida fails miserably.
So, Ida is not a "missing link" – at least not between anthropoids and more primitive primates. Further study may reveal her to be a missing link between other species of Eocene adapiforms, but this hardly solidifies her status as the "eighth wonder of the world".'
SUPER DOUBLE EXTRA EDIT: Looking at your first post, Mormoopid, I see that we basically agree. The article I quoted goes along with what you said. I just think that there may be something up is all. What I was calling "not real" is the whole "missing link" title.
Also, can we not get in an argument? I hate to feel that someone is trying to prove me wrong, even if they're right, you know?
PS. I actually edited this at least fifteen times to make it not seem "douche-ey and generally unchill."
