After reading Richard Wrangham’s awesome book about how cooking made us human and rereading one of my favourite books, The Aquatic Ape, I decided to read a little more about our ancestry. The Link (affiliate links: UK
The Link: missing no longer
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What is The Link?
The Link is several books in one. Amongst other things:
- it is the narrative of how a 47 million year-old fossil was first uncovered in Germany, was hidden and lost for twenty years, before resurfacing to shock the world;
- it is a recreation of the world in which the 47 million year-old animal that became the fossil lived;
- it is an analysis of how that ancient lemur-like animal lived and behaved;
- it is the story of how the fossil came to be called “Ida”;
- it is a discussion of the misconceptions that still prevail in the public mind regarding evolution, dinosaurs and the taxonomy of hominids;
- it is a history of how archaeologists have pieced together the scanty evidence to make sense of it all, where they got things right and where they were drastically wrong.
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So what is special about Ida?
There are two extremely special things about Ida.
- She is a 95% complete skeleton and her preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of her fur and even her stomach contents. The fact that she had fur is interesting from an Aquatic Ape perspective and her stomach contents are interesting from a dietary point of view.
- She appears to belong to the group from which the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and humans) are derived. Whether she was on the direct line is disputed, however.
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And is Ida really her name?
Well, technically, her name is Darwinius masillae. The name was taken from her place of origin, the Messel Pit, in Germany and the fact that she was discovered in the year of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
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Where can I read about the detail?
You can find out more about the technical analysis of the skeleton at one of my favourite sites, the PLoS blogs.
The authors’ conclusion was: “Darwinius masillae represents the most complete fossil primate ever found, including both skeleton, soft body outline and contents of the digestive tract. Study of all these features allows a fairly complete reconstruction of life history, locomotion, and diet.” A discussion of the article on the PLoS blogs can be found here.
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What else is interesting?
Given the huge time span between current humans and this small, furry little creature, I didn’t find much that informed how we might live better today. However, I did learn some interesting things:
#1: Dinosaurs versus mammals
Dinosaurs, far from being usurped by superior mammals, were perhaps some of the most successful creatures that the world has ever seen.
Rather than being outwitted by the clever mammals, they in fact pushed mammals into a very small niche, that of mice and shrews, which they occupied until an asteroid struck and reduced the temperature such that the dinosaurs were unable to survive. As soon as the dinosaurs disappeared, mammalian life errupted.
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#2: The reasons for sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism can be easily observed in many primates, most notably in gorillas, who are proverbial for having a dominant, silverback male. Wikipedia defines sexual dimorphism as “the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species.” Now, I think most people (including myself despite being clearly quite slow) had noticed this.
This is a male gorilla, in case you wondered
Photograph courtesy of William Warby
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What I hadn’t appreciated was that sexual dimorphism arises only in non-monogamous species. It happens when the benefit to a male of mating with multiple females is large, whereas the benefit to a female of mating with multiple males is small.
In these species, there is a selection pressure for whatever traits enable a male to have more matings. The male therefore develops different traits from the female. Generally, they get much, much bigger. Hence the silverback pictured above. And once they have asserted their dominance, they get to own a harem.
Suddenly, the rationale behind the male obsession with bodybuilding becomes perfectly clear…
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But seriously, why should I read this book?
If your origins interest you then this is an essential part of your library, recognising that it is definitely at the far end of being relevant, however. On the other hand, it has very little that will interest the average fitness enthusiast or weight lifter.
