Michael Seiffert is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Alan Kogut at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland.

"You have to be the type for exams, you can't just be good for the job," said Jasmine Seiffert, a 39-year-old German who tried to get a job as an EU proof-reader.

Seiffert and his team claim Darwinius didn't have much anatomical detail to study because it is so crushed, but none of the authors have ever seen the original specimen.