Darwinius, the fossil called Ida

Darwinius masillae is an exceptionally complete juvenile adapiform from the Messel oil shale, preserving fur outline, soft tissue and stomach contents of fruit and leaves. Its 2009 publication came with a documentary, a book and a press event billing it as a missing link in human ancestry. The scientific reception was harsh: subsequent analyses place it among the adapiforms, on the lemur side of the primate tree, not on the line to monkeys and apes. The fossil is genuinely remarkable; the claim attached to it was not.