A new 47-million year old lemur-like female primate fossil, touted to be our oldest ancestor, is really not the missing link in our ancient evolutionary biographies but the mere result of speculations of overeager scientists and excited spinmeisters. ‘Ida,’ as the fossil has been christened, is not even a close relative of monkeys and apes that are said to be human forerunners.
However, ‘Ida’ has been basking in the limelight. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg graced Ida’s unveiling. A TV documentary will talk about the ‘monumental’ discovery. A book deals on it.
The hype has been hot, in fact too hot, that it reeked of a full-blown PR campaign. Some of the hype died down a little when media uncovered the well-planned hype machinery behind the media circus. Earlier, the research team had its own tightly controlled media team. Thus, the media and PR campaign has become an even bigger story than the discovery of the fossil itself.
‘Ida’ is a case of science on premeditated media frenzy, making mere mortals skeptic of the age-old impenetrable credibility of science itself. The ‘scripted’ revelation of Ida’s discovery is one example of why some people may have been distrusting science’s vaunted position.
So, whether Ida is indeed our ancestor or not may be ascertained only after lots more research on the subject of human evolutionary chain. There is no answer yet. One thing is clear: if media and PR attempt to answer that, it is but human to immediately distrust the hype.
Via Live Science
