Evolution 'link' that isn't

NEW YORK: Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced in May with its own book and TV documentary? A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans.

Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction.

In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, said Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York.