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On the November 17,1877,Oxford University awarded Charles Darwin an honorary doctorate. As the naturalist headed towards the podium to accept the degree,unruly undergraduates in the cheap seats unfurled a giant banner theyd sneaked in,of a half-man half-monkey,similar to thousands of caricatures of Darwin with a primates body that the popular press had printed for nearly 20 years. The banner was titled: the Missing Link. The phrase was a common one: it referred to claims by Darwins opponents that evolution was clearly not true after all,there were no fossils showing one animal changing into another,were there? Especially not any of anything becoming human.

And now,there might be. A team of palaeontologists,led by the Norwegian Jørn Hurum,has unveiled a fossil they call Ida,after Hurums daughter. The fossil,47 million years old,appears to be a common ancestor of humans and the ring-tailed lemur,a species which connects apes to humans and humans to the rest of the animal kingdom. In other words,this might be the latest common ancestor of humans and apes,another crucial step on the transition from monkey to man. Most noticeably,Ida already has a grasping hand over an opposable thumb. And she has flat nails like us today, according to Hurum.

For those who care about evolution,this is a wonderful birthday gift to the theory; Darwins book was published 150 years ago this November. And this is Darwins bicentennial year,as well. So much have people wanted this in the past,that the worlds most famous scientific hoax,Piltdown Man,was of a similarly important transitional fossil. So naturally,the species has been named Darwinius Masillae. You might think of it as Darwin having the last laugh at rowdy Oxonian undergraduates.