Nina Hjerpset-Østlie 
Sir David Attenborough, who will present a BBC documentary on the discovery next Tuesday, said: «This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of all mammals. The link they would have said until now is missing… is no longer missing.»
The almost complete skeleton, which lacks only a part of one leg, was unearthed as long ago as 1983, in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt in Germany, but its significance had not been noticed until now because the fossil was split into two parts which were sold to separate collections.
The pieces have now been reunited by a scientific team led by Jørn Hurum, of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, and the first analysis is published today in the journal Public Library of Science One. As well as the bones, the fossil preserves soft features of the animal and even its last meal: it was a herbivore that had eaten fruit, seeds and leaves before it died.
«This fossil will probably be pictures in all the textbooks for the next 100 years,» Dr Hurum said. «This is the first link to all humans… truly a fossil that links world heritage.
