When I wrote about the public unveiling of Ardipithecus ramidusthe public unveiling of Ardipithecus ramidus (or “Ardi” to the public) last week I contrasted the description of the hominin with the bombastic rollout given to the lemur-like fossil primate “Ida” (Darwinius masillae) this past May. In the latter case it was clear that a media production company rushed the scientific process and overhyped the conclusions presented to the public, but now there are questions about the relationship between the scientists who described “Ardi” and the Discovery Channel.

This coming Sunday the Discovery Channel will air a special called “Discovering Ardi” which obviously was in production long before the collection of Science papers were released. Could the release of