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The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor

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Because this is a book review, I am going to try to avoid merely rehashing criticism regarding the hype surrounding the Darwinius masillae fossil. By now you've already probably heard enough of that. If you want some good blog commentary on Ida, check out Carl Zimmer's blog (feed://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/AN44WKEOJXHKY/rss.xml).

As a popular science book, I enjoyed "The Link." I have read quite a few books about evolution and paleontology at various levels, and thought this one was one of the most clearly written (if not the most scientifically sound). The writing itself is smooth and accessible to a wider audience. The book conveys the right amount of detail for a general audience. I also appreciated the "boyish" enthusiasm the authors conveyed for the Ida fossil. Fossils are exciting, and I'm glad the authors made no effort to hide their enthusiasm. Sometimes, this becomes a problem if the book's enthusiastic claims are not backed up with evidence (which I'll get to later), but overall describing the acquisition of Ida as a "cloak and dagger" operation (in which Hurum must first verify the legality of the fossil) can show - in a dramatic fashion - some of the real challenges paleontologists face when collecting fossils.

I particularly liked the first chapter, which begins with a fictionalized account of Ida's death during the Eocene (approx. 55-33 million years ago) (incidentally, this chapter is free for download on "The Link" website). As much as I appreciate the more technical books discussing fossil analysis or new theories in evolution, at some point I think it is helpful to animate the fossils and show how they might have lived (I think Raptor Red by Bob Bakker was another great attempt at this for Velociraptors). In other chapters, "The Link" also provides interesting background (and beautiful pictures) of other animals in the Eocene. I think this, combined with first episode of BBC's Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (which is also set in the same time and place) gives readers a more complete understanding of Ida's world than a more technical book might.

"The Link" is an enjoyable read and most people will learn a lot about Eocene fauna, but the book falls short in not providing enough evidence to back up its claims regarding primate (and ultimately human) evolution. Basically, the consensus in paleoanthropology seems to be that monkeys and apes descended from Tarsier-like creatures, while Lemurs split off earlier. However, "The Link" (and the scientific publication as well) suggest that monkeys and apes (and hence humans) descended from a Lemur-like creature - namely Ida. As other critics have noted elsewhere, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and "The Link" doesn't provide this. I thought their analysis of primate evolution and the book's overview of the debate was a bit skewered in order to favor their interpretation. The authors may well be right (it's too early to tell), but I urge readers to keep an open and skeptical mind when reading these sections. For those really interested in this debate, I'd also recommend Chris Beard's The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans, which supports the a separate theory (that there was a third "ghost line" of primates separate from tarsiers and lemurs).

Bottom line: despite the unnecessary hype, this book is well-written and provides enough useful background and food for thought for readers to make it worthwhile. It is definitely geared toward lay readers with little to no scientific background. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to pick up the book and learn about evolution. At the same time, do not treat this book as the final word on primate evolution, but rather as simply another chapter in a fascinating debate.

I feel like I've been taken for the price of the book. This may be about a ten page magazine article stretched to 250 pages. How many times can the authors repeat the same facts? Yes, Ida was asphixiated and fell into the lake, Yes, we are lucky to have a complete skeleton, Yes, that is rare in paleontology! Yes, it is 47 millions years old! (Do a search on that.) You can learn all this in the beginning, the end and several places in-between. As for the great writing, we have constructions such as "Each scientist on Harum's team contributed to the study largely in his or her area of expertise" Really? what a good idea.

But the real dishonesty is that we find out on page 239, with 11 pages left (including the acknowledgments) that, uh, we're not really sure after all: "Hurum and his team determined that the lemur-like and anthropoid-likecharacteristics were so primitive that Ida couldn't be conclusively called either one..." that is, it may not be our "grandmother" after all which belies the title "The Link" and many other leading discussions. I've been played.

This book was released to coincide with the onslaught of publicity and exposure generated by some grandstanding scientists and an ignorant (and thus complicit) media, centering on the unveiling of a lemur-like fossil from the Eocene. The fossil (scientifically Darwinius masillae; cutesy marketing name, "Ida") is in amazing shape (stomach contents identifiable, fur outline inferable, juvenile teeth giving way to adult teeth, etc.) and represents an interesting and important find. If we had been allowed to learn about it as we do other fossils--brief splashes of uninformed media blitz followed by puddles of actual information in more serious publications such as Scientific American, Nature, National Geographic and the like--there would be little to complain about and much to celebrate. But the three-ring choreography surrounding this announcement, of which the book is a key element (but probably not as key as the TV show), calls the enterprise into disrepute and inadvertently trivializes what it seeks to elevate.

Some of the book is written in breathless, shades-of-purple prose where events are miracles and everything is unprecedented and amazing. Starting with the very first word of the title--"The"--"Link" seems bent on hyperbole and sensationalism more than it is on scientific elucidation. There is not "the" link. There are a bunch of "a" links, plural, and virtually every fossil is a link in some sense.

Certainly in the very loose sense that the authors of "Link" are using the term, most fossils represent a "link," because it is not even assured, by the book's own admission, that Ida is in a line of direct ancestry with humans. She might be more aunt than mother, if she even deserves THAT designation.

The first part of the book tries to recreate that scene in "Jurassic Park" in which the fat dude from "Seinfeld" makes the deal to put viable dinosaur embryos into a container disguised as a shaving cream can. Sleepless nights, meetings in bars, money changing hands, legal questions.

It wasn't even the phony drama that bugged me (we can tell how the story ended from the photo on the book jacket); it's that I don't even care about any ACTUAL drama surrounding a fossil find. Like in "Raising the Mammoth," I realize that the heroic effort the scientists made to obtain this Ice Age treasure is supposed to be the point, but I can't be bothered. I only really care about the specimen, what it can tell us. And this attitude is at no time more true than when I feel that all that Indiana Jones stuff is being used as mere padding because the book (or film) just doesn't have enough to say about the organism.

But there is a plus side to padding.

Given that there was not a book's worth to say about Ida, several chapters are given over to far more interesting issues related to her time (the very warm Eocene), other organisms that were her contemporaries, and some competing theories about the exact lineage of human ancestry. These chapters are the strongest in "Link," and the closest the book comes to providing additional understanding about evolution and long-ago animals.

As a big fan of science, especially evolutionary biology, with its ability to help us understand so much about ourselves and the world, I am afraid this exercise in tabloid science will blow up on everyone now seeking to profit from it. The result could be that a potential audience, already content to believe goat-herder mythology over fact, will grow ever more cynical about accepting what science has to teach us.

My hope--and it is a slim one--is that the faux enthusiasm in this book, the dabs of genuine information, and the challenge to learn more, might inspire people to learn more about evolution, specifically human evolution. But I suppose that's a bit like hoping that Dan Brown's latest chalice-boiler will inspire people to learn something about church history.

Concluding Unscientific Postscript: Commentors and folks I talked to over the weekend--centering on the History Channel showing of the brief documentary "The Link" on Memorial Day--have convinced me that I have been too harsh, too elitist, and too dismissive of this book, and that what I was mostly reacting to is the hype around the entire announcement rather than the book itself. Fair points. Several people I much respect have stated that they think this book will promote an understanding of human evolution. I think they might be right. Chapter 3 through 8 in this book, the ones actually written by Tudge, do contain much accurate, interesting information. I still object strongly to some compromises that were made in bringing this discovery to a mass audience, and still contend that it is possible to inform and entertain the public without making such compromises (as people line Sean Carroll, Carl Zimmer, Ken Miller, and Jerry Coyne demonstrate). But I was rash and perhaps unfair in my overall assessment of this book AS A BOOK. So despite some of my critical language above, I hope that anyone looking for a basic, fast-paced introduction to the field of primate (including human) evolution will consider this postscript a qualified recommendation. The positive reviewers are not wrong; there are important things to take away from "The Link."

Fortunately I was unaware of the controversy surrounding this book and the TV documentary that appeared at the same time until after I had bought and began reading it. I was also unaware of the rather raucous reviews of some of the readers that are contained in the reader review section of the book list entry. Some of the hot-winded reviewers sounded like the noisy dunces at a health care town meeting or an anti-abortion rally (much ado about nothing). What I will relate are my impressions unmarred by the previously noted diatribes.

As a retired professor involved in the teaching of evolutionary biology for some thirty years, I was very excited about the subject of this work. A 47 million year old almost complete fossil skeleton of a new early primate; a possible link in the transition of prosimian to anthropoid in the Eocene from the famous Messel Lagerstatte was very exciting indeed. However as I began reading in earnest I had the feeling that something was amiss. It read like an early, unrevised manuscript ( I have written seven books myself and I know). There were generalizations that were unsound, there was bad sentence sequence, there was lack of "flow" that has always been a pleasure in Mr. Tudge's previous works(of which I have several). Finally there was downright wrong information. On page 41 "The commonest form of carbon in the world has an atomic weight of 14 and is known as carbon 14". This is an inexcusable error; this is beginning High School chemistry. In 1961 the IUPC chose carbon 12 as the basis for all atomic weights; the standard by which all other elements are measured. Yes, there are rare isotopes as carbon 13 and carbon 14 that occur and can be used as radioactive tracers. But such errors cast a pall on the whole book and it's content. What was and is needed is judicious editing. The chapters are awkwardly bridged, some parts sound needlessly padded and to a degree incoherent.

Later in the book when the discussion is about present knowledge of primate evolution and the large gaps that exist, the clarity of the writing is on par with previous Tudge books. The description of living primates, their charateristics and differences is a model of expository writing. It is really too bad that the various sections were thrown together in such haste, for a deadline one presumes, and was not "full term" when it saw the light of day.

I was happy to learn many new things (being an undergrad studying Bio) including a simple yet intriguing description of the cooler climate that arose in the Eocene due to the "Azolla event" and the massive amounts of bicarbonates recycled via plate techtonics, especially in India. The wealth of information contained within the first 54 pages is enough to compel me to write this review. I know many doctors, nurses, students, etc. who excell in science but know next to nothing when it comes to evolution..or they simply read about the major findings such as Archaeopteryx, Baisilosaurus, Microraptor, Ambulocetus natans and such. This book describes in detail the landscape of the Eocene, describes the life present there at the time and reveals the recent discovery of Ida, a 47 million year old primate ancestor. Supposedly, this is "our oldest ancestor". As the previous reviewer stated, "The Link" is a horrible idea for a title because there is not only one "link" in the chain of our evolutionary history. Also, if you want to go deeper into our evolutionary past, you could say that Haikouella, a worm-like creature with a notochord, is one of our earlier ancestors if you include the members of the phylum Chordata as relatives.

"The Link" tells the wonderfully written story of Ida, the world in which she lived, and her last moments alive. The book also gives an excellent account of the confluence of events and unique circumstances that preserve Ida for 47 million years. Intertwined with Ida's story is the story of Dr. Jorn Hurum and his discovery of Ida's fossilized remains for sale in the shadowy world of private fossil collection. His efforts to acquire Ida for the University for which he works and assemble a team of experts to unravel and tell Ida's story is recounted.

Among many other interesting subjects, the reader will learn of the Messel Pit in Germany and its unique properties, that have proven to be a treasure trove of fossils from Europe's distant tropical past, and how we almost lost this great preserve with its many fossilized treasures to a planned garbage dump. Written in an entertaining and easy to understand style, one will also gain a better understanding of the many scientific disciplines involved in finding, examining, identifying, and preserving fossils along with the highly trained individuals that worked together to decipher Ida's story.

"The Link" is a scientific detective story about a fossil (marketed as "Ida"), discovered several decades ago in a shale pit in Germany. It is dated to be 45 million years old and is clearly a primate, an ancestor to humans. It has stunning pictures of the fossil including the opposable thumbs, fingernails, baby teeth, and forearm bones that are easily recognizable as primate. Filling out the book is a wide ranging exposition of Eocene flora and fauna, and the relationships found the primate and hence human family tree. It is well written although the sheer number of scientific names can make your head spin. As an interested observer and student of general science, it was a most enjoyable read. If you are aware of and enjoyed "Lucy" you will be up to and enjoy "The Link".

As an avid reader on paleontology and evolution, I found this book seriously lacking. After reading half the book I found myself skipping ahead looking for some real substance on this fossil and its proposed significance in primate history. I found known. As for writing style, Tudge is a master of hyperbole and the rhetorical question. Frankly, I felt this book was written at a middle school level. Let me recommend Beard's "The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey" if you are interested in early primate paleontology.

Ida, the fossil that the title refers to, may be an important find, but you couldn't tell from this book. It's probably because the study of it has only just begun. But whatever, there's little to write about, so the author has padded the book with old material. There are brief references to Ida at the beginning and at the end, but the rest consists of lists of the other fossils found at the Messel Pit, sketchy histories of the various geologic epochs, and a rehash of Darwinian theories. There are no new revelations, no new theories, nothing of any substance. There isn't even much of interest as to how Ida was discovered. As a reader interested in paleontology, this book was a big disappointment

In what was touted to be a publication so astounding that it required specially sealed boxes with "untitled" printed on the side and a very specific laydown date, The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor didn't lead a revolution in science or shock the world as much as expected. The book begins with a hypothetical story of how a lemur-like creature some 55-33 millions years ago was gassed at a lake sitting on top of a volcano, dropped into the water and sank into the mud below. Then over millions of years, with further layers compacting and preserving the skeleton, it now stands as one of the most complete skeletons ever discovered.

The Link tells the detailed story of how the skeleton, known as Ida, was found and how it is the supposed "missing link" and the first step that animals made into becoming primates and eventually humans. With the creation of a new genus, Darwinius, there is currently only this skeleton as its single member: Darwinius masillae, or Ida, as it's discover, Dr. Jørn Hurum (though not the original discover) dubbed it after his daughter. The Link is a good anthropology book, giving a history lesson on our ancestry and the ancestry of many animals and how this new species may fit into it. The criticism against it is that there still remains a lot of research to be discovered and confirmed about Ida, and many scientists around the world have objected to the overly-publicized nature of this skeleton and it being called the "missing link."

While time will tell what more Ida has to offer, for now, The Link remains a interesting book, with facts on Darwinius masillae that should be taken with some suspicion. But then isn't that how all science is done?

Originally written on June 18th 2009 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.

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