Ancient ape gives clue to family origins
Michael Hopkin
Fossil from 13 million years ago sheds light on human split from apes.

Fossil hunters in Spain have unearthed what seems to be the most recent
common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, orang utans and humans. The ape
lived almost 13 million years ago, about the time that our different
lineages are thought to have diverged.

The species has been christened Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, in reference
to the Catalan village of Els Hostalets de Pierola, where the fossil was
found. The specimen consists of 83 bones from an adult male, including parts
of the skull, teeth, ribs and fingers.

The creature would have weighed about 55 kilograms, making it about the size
of a female chimpanzee, says Salvador Moyá-Solá of the Miquel Crusafont
Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, whose team reports the discovery in
this week's Science1. But it would have looked more like a primitive
gorilla, he adds.

The scarcity of the fossil record makes it difficult to say whether P.
catalaunicus is actually the most recent common ancestor of all great apes
living today, Moyá-Solá says. But it is likely to resemble it closely:
analyses of the rates at which differences arise between our DNA and that of
other apes show that our family must have begun diverging at about the time
when P. catalaunicus was alive.

Tree scuttler

Intriguingly, the fossil shows a mixture of typical 'apelike' features
alongside more primitive 'monkey' characteristics, the team reports. The
creature would have been able to lift itself into a standing position as
modern apes can, but its short fingers mean that it would not have been able
to grip branches with enough strength to swing from them.

This means that tree-swinging might have evolved several times in different
apes, rather than being a habit from the start, the researchers suggest. The
earliest great apes might have scuttled around on top of branches, much as
today's monkeys do.

Full Text at Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041115/full/041115-12.html

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