Saw this today...Thought I would share 

Missing link found? Scientists unveil fossil of 47 million-year-old primate, Darwinius masillae

BY SAMANTHA STRONG AND RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Tuesday, May 19th 2009, 12:57 PM

Feast your eyes on what a group of scientists claim is the Holy Grail of human evolution.

A team of researchers Tuesday unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought missing link between humans and apes.

Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed Ida shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.

Scientists say the cat-sized animal's hind legs offer evidence of evolutionary changes that led to primates standing upright - a breakthrough that could finally confirm 
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

"This specimen is like finding the Lost Ark for archeologists," said lead scientist Jorn Hurum during a ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History.

"It is the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail. This fossil will probably be the one that will be pictured in all textbooks for the next 100 years."

A team of amateur fossil hunters discovered the near-perfect remains inside a mile-wide crater outside of Frankfurt, Germany, in 1983.

Experts believe the pit was a volcanic caldera where scores of animals from the Eocene period were killed and their remains were kept remarkably well-preserved.

Though the pit has been a bountiful source of other fossils, the inexperienced archeologists didn't realize the value of their find.

Years later, the University of Oslo bought the 95%-intact fossil, and Hurum studied it in secret for two years.

His colleague, Jens Franzen, hailed the discovery as "the eighth wonder of the world."

"We're not dealing with our grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," Franzen said.

The unveiling of the fossil came as part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign unusual for scientific discoveries.

A History Channel film on the discovery will air next week. A book release, and a slew of other documentaries will follow.

Oh crap, now we have two missing links, one on either side of this fossil!

that tail is like the size of its body

Why would this prove evolution? Why is everyone so focused on HUMAN evolution anyway?

Eh well. I don't think we can say we've definitivly proved evolution until we've replicated it in a lab though.

Kind of like having a something in a cadberry cream egg wrapper.

We're about 99% sure it will be a cadberry cream egg... but it could not be.

I think this is because even if we do "prove" evolution in some other animal there will always be people who think that as humans we are fundamentally different and don't have to follow the rules, so to speak.

Looks more reptilian than primate.

i hate when people think the missing link is just one species between humans and apes. Missing links are any gaps that are not found in the fossil record yet. there are hundreds if not thousands of missing links to humanity. This is probably one way before the primates arrived.

He looks pretty awesome.This is too good to be true.

So that's what our common ancestor was like, interesting.

it looks pre-primate to me. i mean, it has a tail...