Fossils: Another piece in the monkey puzzle
The discovery of the fossilized remains of a previously unknown primate from Saudi Arabia could bring us one step closer to dating the divergence between hominoids and Old World monkeys. The findings are reported in a paper in this week’s Nature.
The timing of the divergence of hominoids (apes and humans) and cercopithecoids (Old World monkeys) from a common ancestor is a key topic in human evolution. Genome-based estimates place the split at around 35–30 million years (Myr) ago, during the early Oligocene period. The fossil record from the mid-to-late Oligocene (30–23 Myr ago), however, has left little evidence documenting the features of the last common ancestor or supporting the timing of the divergence.
William Sanders and colleagues describe a partial skull representing a new species of medium-sized primate that weighed around 15–20 kg. The animal dates to about 29–28 Myr ago and has few characteristics of catarrhines, the common ancestor of Old World monkeys and hominoids, indicating that the divergence happened later than previously thought, between 29–28 and 24 Myr ago. The authors suggest that the findings will fill in some crucial gaps in our understanding of the nature and timing of phylogenetic events important to human origins.
Author contact
William Sanders (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
Tel: +1 734 647 2098
E-mail: [email protected]
Iyad Zalmout (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) – Co-author
Tel: +1 734 764 0489
E-mail: [email protected]
Laura MacLatchy (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) – Co-author
Tel: +1 734 764 7274
E-mail: [email protected]
Jeffrey Wilson (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) – Co-author
Tel: +1 734 647 7461
E-mail: [email protected]
Philip Gingerich (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) – Co-author
Tel: +1 734 660 4468
E-mail: [email protected]
PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231
E-mail: [email protected]
From Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Nakano, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751
E-mail: [email protected]
From the UK
Rebecca Walton, Nature, London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502
E-mail: [email protected]
About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. In addition, for this audience, NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, plus a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 5 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and online databases and services, including Nature News and NatureJobs plus access to Nature Network and Nature Education’s Scitable.com.
Scientific American is at the heart of NPG’s newly-formed consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 15 local language editions around the world it reaches over 3 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.
Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific and medical communities and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Publishers Limited, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Hong Kong, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Heidelberg, Basingstoke, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.
