In praise of … Messel Pit
A discovery was unveiled in New York yesterday that will change for ever our understanding of the way Homo sapiens evolved. "Ida" is a monkey-like transitional fossil that provides, ­palaeontologists speculate, a new body of evidence about the transition from ­monkey to man. Evolutionary theory is studded with missing links, as Charles Darwin himself – reluctantly coming to the personally mortifying conclusion that the biblical story of the creation was wrong – was uneasily aware. But it is the disprovability of his theory that makes it so scientifically satisfying. It could so easily be undone by a new discovery, yet (almost) every transitional fossil so far identified has merely confirmed the great man's hypotheses. Perhaps the most important source of these – including "Ida" – is Messel Pit, which was narrowly rescued from industrial exploitation when Unesco awarded it world heritage site status in 1995. It is uniquely rich in evolutionary evidence, for in it is ­conserved life on Earth as it was 48 million years ago – and in such a state of preservation that the last meal eaten by "Ida" can be analysed. It ­provides a unique snapshot of the abundant life of a ­subtropical valley at a moment of explosive evolution. Already, scientists have identified 31 types of plant fossil, 45 species of mammal and 43 species of bird – some so swiftly fossilised and so long undisturbed that even colour and the smallest pattern of feather can be detected – as well as more than a thousand fish. It is a ­Darwinian cornucopia.