Ida: Damp squib...

So remember Ida? The fossil that was going to "change everything"? That was a "missing link"? That was supposed to be a human ancestor? Well it seems all that media hype was for nothing because, according to a new paper in Nature, Ida was the ancestor of... nothing. (Or at least nothing extant).

I don't have the necessary expertise to have an opinion about the controversy itself, but lots of people who do were skeptical right from the start and the naysayers now hove more ammunition that ever. Note to all: doing science by media is a really, really Bad Idea.

Further reading:

• "When It Comes To Being The "Missing Link", Ida -- You Are NOT The Candidate" at Prancing Papio.
• "Breaking the Link - Darwinius revealed as ancestor of nothing" at Not Exactly Rocket Science. 
• "Bone Crunching Debunks ‘First Monkey’ Ida Fossil Hype" at Wired Science.
  
• "Ida Redux" at NeuroLogica.