杏吧原创

There has been strong criticism of the way this fossil has been publicised. Are people upset because your conclusion 鈥� that Ida is probably the ancestor of all apes and monkeys 鈥� seemed too set in stone?

Yes. That鈥檚 why there has been head-banging.

The money spent on Ida [the asking price was reported to be $1 million]鈥� was that because it was such a well-preserved primate, or because of its potential evolutionary relationship to humans?

No. We started off thinking it was the ancestor of all lemurs.

It may still turn out to be a lemur. Do you still have an open mind about that?

Of course. This is science. If other people鈥檚 arguments are better than what we present in (vol 4, e5723) or what we are going to do in the next two papers, we will accept it, no problem.

Would it be as interesting if Ida turns out to be a lemur?

Yes, because you can focus on it being a primate that lived 47 million years ago. I think that message really got through that we have ancestors way, way back in time, not only in Africa. I find it very nice that we have got that message out to people in the street, even if it turns out to be a lemur 鈥� which I don鈥檛 believe at the moment.

What about the creationists who are using the reaction against your paper as ammunition against evolutionary biologists?

Yes, that鈥檚 tricky. We did it this way and of course will be criticised for it. But now it鈥檚 done.

Were you happy with how the History Channel handled the documentary?

Some of the slogans were too much. 鈥淭he biggest find in 47 million years鈥� this will change everything.鈥� We had some control over the press material but then it evolved. It grew too large to be able to control everything.

That鈥檚 going to make things tough at the next conference you go to.

I never go to conferences. It鈥檚 extremely boring, and there are so few talks that are interesting enough to listen to. Scientific congresses are a lot of arm-waving and big egos not going anywhere. That鈥檚 not my way of doing it.

In the PLoS paper, you single out the absence of a tooth comb and grooming claw, which are defining features of lemurs. What will be the focus of your next analysis?

The foot, the inner ear and the incisor might tell us something, I think. The inner ear and the foot will be the main focus for the systematics and this will be done and published within about a year.

A lot of people are going to take a lot of convincing that Ida is a human ancestor. Have you got strong enough evidence?

We鈥檒l see with the foot and the inner ear. We just have to try our best. Whatever it is, it鈥檚 a fantastic specimen.