What is the name of the 47-million-year-old primate fossil from Germany known as 'Ida'?

The 47-million-year-old primate fossil from Germany known as “Ida” is Darwinius masillae.

Darwinius masillae is the only known species in the extinct primate genus Darwinius. It lived during the Middle Eocene, roughly 47 million years ago, when the Messel region of Germany was a subtropical lake environment. The exceptionally preserved fossil includes much of the skeleton and soft-tissue impressions.

The specimen was discovered in 1983 at the Messel Pit, about 35 kilometres southeast of Frankfurt. It was later named “Ida” after the daughter of one of the scientists involved in studying it. The fossil was split into a main slab and counterslab and sold separately before being reunited in 2007.

A common mix-up is confusing the species name with the nickname: Ida is the individual fossil, while Darwinius masillae is its scientific identification. Ida was also initially presented as a possible “missing link” in human evolution, but later research placed Darwinius among adapiform primates and did not establish it as a direct human ancestor.