Salivating over another fossil

Reading this coverage of the old fossil purchased by scientists from a collector, Chris Matthews and his tingling leg comes to mind.

This Lemur-like fossil, Ida, is not new, had originally been split and stored different locations
, and of course the age is ?????. But it’s being proclaimed loudly as the missing link.

I’m too old and have seen too many retractions to get excited about this. Also, as you know, this has been done much differently than real scientific work, with the underlying effort being pretty much hidden, and a sudden unveiling before the drooling press occurring in New York, to celebrate the Darwin bicentennial. A fossil replica is to be placed on display this week at the American Museum of Natural History.

Just to remind you, I’ve read the Origin of Species, and have a very good education in this area. The evolutionary theory is quite an ingenious idea, originally presented as a creative mechanism, and subsequently abused as a religion by the incompetents.

Please note the time that the underlying research was PUBLISHED in PLoS One: Received: March 19, 2009; Accepted: May 12, 2009; Published: May 19, 2009. I really don’t like the way that these “unveilings” of “discoveries” are done anymore. It’s not the way that actual Science proceeds.