Laser scanners combined with a computerized photographic model produce a digital code of her body, which once processed creates an accurately 3D model.
Ida is a warm blood creature covered with thick fur, she is just under one meter long including her tail, which she used for balance as she scampered on all fours along the rain forest canopy, her opposable thumbs and toes gripped the branches.
Ida is probably activity at night, like us, her two large forward facing eyes gave her excellence stereoscopic vision.
How significant is she to our understanding of our evolution? Does she belong on the evolutionary branch that leads to us???
The Eocene period in which she lived was a crucial time in the history life, without the developments that happened we will not exists now.
At some point during this new dawn, the primates split into two major groups.
The Prosimians (the non human branch) which still survive today, mainly as a modern lemurs.
The other branch the Antropoides has developed into monkeys, apes and ultimately us - humans.
The advantage of having a skeleton that is so completed, hopefully will let us make the connection to what came later. In the sense, studying primate evolution is all about looking at the diversity living today and tracing that back through time. What we are interested here to see is how apes & monkeys traced back, how lemurs traced back and which of these or all of them can we find in the Eocene.
The first guess of cause, because of the other specimen that were found in the Messel locality, of course is to say that this is a primitive lemur.
Most lemurs are of the size of monkeys, they have similar habits and life styles, but they are evolutionary side branch, they hardly changed fundamentally in 47 million years.
Prosimians species : Lemurs, Tarsiers, Loris, Galagos, & Pottos
Lemurs : Coquerels sifaka
Ring-tailed lemur
Lemurs second digit has a long grooming claw, on the hind foot.
Lemurs are using this for groom their fur.
Checking their teeth
Their front teeth in the lower jaw are a tooth comb.
Ida does not have a tooth comb and no grooming claw, she only has nails like humans. Ida does not belonging to the lemurs.
to be continued…………………..
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