Ancient fossil tale compelling

THE title of Colin Tudge’s new book The Link: Uncovering our Earliest Ancestor is a little misleading. Our earliest ancestor was a bacterium which lived 3.2 billion years ago, whereas the book celebrates the fossilised remains of an animal which lived a mere 47 million years ago.

However, the case that the kitten-sized mammal was on our evolutionary line is compelling. It had opposable thumbs, just as we have, and its ankle bone was the same shape as ours.

Lucy, the most famous human ancestor, lived 3.2 million years ago. Less than 40% of her skeleton is intact, whereas 95% of this creature’s bones remain. The outlines of the fur and soft body parts are preserved and even the remains of the last meal were fossilised. Apart from the connection with humans, this Mona Lisa of palaeontology is the most complete fossil of an ancient primate ever found.