Missing Link Fossil Found?

When I loaded up Firefox this morning and it went to my default page (google.com), I noticed google had a strange icon next to it's name. The one here to the left. I didn't know what it meant, but while browsing the morning news I soon found out.

Some scientists 2 years ago found a 47 million year old fossil so well preserved that the contents of it's stomach were still distinguishable. They named the fossil Ida (after one of the founder's/scientist's daughters) and they are claiming that it could be the missing link between lower primates (lemurs) and higher primates (apes, humans).



BUT there's a catch. As stated by the NYT, "the event, which will coincide with the publishing of a peer-reviewed article about the find, is the first stop in a coordinated, branded media event, orchestrated by the scientists and the History Channel, including a film detailing the secretive two-year study of the fossil, a book release, an exclusive arrangement with ABC News and an elaborate Web site."

Makes you wonder if all the hype behind the find is truly a scientific breakthrough or just capitalism rearing it's ugly head. It kind of reminds me of an article I read a decade ago about the Archaeoraptor. That article turned into a publishing nightmare for National Geographic as they tried to backtrack and salvage what credibility they had left.