Ida fossil video coming to the web

An exclusive documentary about Ida, the near-perfectly preserved fossil of what scientists believe is a missing link in the chain of human evolution, will be shown online.

A programme about the find will be broadcast live simultaneously on the BBC and BBC One website on Tuesday 26 May.

The hour-long feature will be screened at 2100BST. The BBC said it would use 3D animations and imaging technologies to recreate Ida and the world that she would have inhabited.

Once broadcast, the documentary will also be available to watch through the BBC's iPlayer website.

There is also an official Ida website where you can get more information about the find.

A 2.9MB high-res Ida image can be downloaded from the Revealing The Link website.

The Google Doodle has also been changed in honour of the discovery.

Ida, or to give her her official name, Darwinius masillae, was discovered in Messel Pit, Germany, and is 20 times older than most fossils that explain human evolution, and is 95 per cent complete, scientists say.