Primate on EARTH Magazine

Extinct gibbon found in Chinese tomb

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 12:52:31 -0400

Junzi imperialis is a newly described extinct gibbon from China. Credit: Samuel Turvey/ZSL.

About 2,200 years ago, a Chinese noblewoman was buried in a tomb with a menagerie of animals, including 12 horses, a leopard, a lynx and a species of gibbon unknown to modern science. The new ape, identified using detailed cranial and dental measurements as a new genus and species — Junzi imperialis — may represent the first ape to have gone extinct due to human influence after the last ice age.

Bipedalism left its mark on human skull: Kangaroos and upright rodents show same signs

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:20:41 -0400

The transition to bipedal walking in our ancestors changed the hominin skeleton in many ways. New research looking at how upright walking affected the structures at the base of the skull in both early humans and other bipedal mammals, like kangaroos, is shedding light on a once-controversial marker for bipedalism.

Tiny bones pull India into the story of early primate evolution

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:31:36 -0500

Fossilized femur bones from early primates found in a coal mine in Gujarat, India. Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine .

Bones of an ancient rat-sized, tree-dwelling primate have recently been discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, India, and may represent the most primitive known remnants of the divergence between the two great primate clades.

Could early Homo pass the sniff test?

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 12:41:27 -0400

A reconstruction of Homo habilis at the Museum of Archaeology in Herne, Germany. At some point in the diversification of early Homo, facial features that resembled those of humans began to replace the ape-like countenance of early hominins. Credit: Lillyundfreya, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Like modern humans, early hominins walked upright and had opposable thumbs, but their faces were more ape-like, with flattened noses and protruding foreheads. It wasn’t until the evolution of the genus Homo that hominin faces began to look more human — flatter overall but with protruding noses. Along with changes in external appearance came internal changes as well, though these are less well understood as soft-tissue structures preserved in the fossil record are hard to come by. In a new study, researchers comparing both modern human and nonhuman primate nasal cavities offer some clues as to how our respiratory system evolved on the inside to compensate for the changes on the outside.

Humans evolved early to be more efficient sleepers

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 15:41:39 -0400

Chimpanzees sleep an average of 11.5 hours per day, usually in a tree nest, whereas humans snooze for just seven hours. Credit: Kathelijne Koops, University of Zurich, Switzerland.

We humans spend about a third of our lives asleep. While that might sound like a lot, we require less sleep than most mammals. In a new study, researchers have quantified how much less sleep we need than other primates, and the findings may offer clues to how and when human sleep patterns evolved.

Human hands not most advanced

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 09:08:44 -0500

With longer fingers, chimpanzees have lower thumb-to-finger-length ratios than humans. Credit: Almécija et al., Nature Communications, 2015, CC BY 4.0.

Compared to chimpanzees, our recent evolutionary cousins, humans have long thumbs relative to our fingers. This trait has endowed our ancestors and us with a particular talent for grasping and working with tools, which likely contributed to our evolutionary success over the last several million years since splitting off from the last common ancestor (LCA) shared by the two groups. But rather than humans having the more evolved hand — a prevailing hypothesis since the late 20th century — a new study suggests that chimps’ hands, with lower thumb-to-finger-length ratios, have changed considerably more.

Earliest primates were tree dwellers

Mon, 20 Apr 2015 09:02:41 -0400

The ankle bones of the 65-million- year-old primate Purgatorius, shown here in an artist's rendition, reveal that the earliest primates likely lived in trees. Credit: Patrick Lynch/Yale University.

The first primates evolved shortly after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. But whether these small mammals lived on the ground or in trees has puzzled paleontologists, who only had fossil teeth and jaws to examine, which left much of the animals’ appearance and behavior a mystery.

"Missing link" or major hype?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Jørn Hurum, one of the scientists that announced the fossil find on Tuesday. 2009 AETN.

A squirrel-sized primate that lived 47 million years ago in the rainforests of Europe may be the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans, according to scientists who announced the discovery of the “missing link” fossil yesterday at a press conference. The well-preserved fossil has been at the center of a whirlwind PR blitz, including a History Channel documentary airing next week and an upcoming book — yet some scientists say the bones don’t live up to the hype.

New cousin joins primate family tree - but it's also no missing link

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Teeth and jaw remains of _Afradapis_. Erik Seiffert et al., Nature 2009

Blogging on EARTH

Darwinius — the purported primate “missing link” that made headlines last spring — is back, sort of. Scientists have now found a close cousin of the primate — and they say the new fossil is no more a missing link than Darwinius was.

Paleo Patrol: Primates of the Caribbean

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Erin Wayman (pictured in Cardiff, Wales) writes Paleo Patrol for EARTH. Spencer Wayman

The only monkeys you’ll find on the islands of the Caribbean today were brought there (intentionally or not) by people. But just a few thousand years ago, thriving populations of primates existed across the Caribbean. The discovery of exceptionally well-preserved monkey bones in the Dominican Republic is helping researchers better understand the evolutionary history of these now-extinct primates.