Examiner article: Fossil of common ancestor of apes and Old World monkeys described
Examiner.com: University of Michigan paleontologist finds ancestor of apes and Old World monkeys
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
It is not every day that one goes out looking for dinosaur bones, but instead finds a fossil that may not be as glamorous, but is even more important to science than yet another dinosaur. University of Michigan paleontologist Iyad Zalmout found that out for himself last year, when he went exploring western Saudi Arabia for dinosaur fossils, but instead discovered what may be one of the last common ancestors of apes and Old World monkeys.
What Dr. Zalmout found was the partial skull of Saadanius hijazensis, a primitive primate that displayed all the shared characteristics of both Old World monkeys, such as baboons, macaques, and colubus monkeys, and apes, such as gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and, oh, yes, humans, but lacked the specialized distinguishing features of either group. This combination of traits is exactly what a common ancestor of both groups would have.
Note only does Saadanius hijazensis fill in a chapter in the fossil history leading to humans that scientists had long suspected to have existed but never had read before, it puts a date on that chapter with greater precision than scientists working from previously available evidence had been able to infer. Paleontologits working from fossil evidence speculated that the split between the apes and Old World monkeys could have occurred as recently as 23 million to 25 million years ago (National Science Foundation). On the other hand, analysis of DNA from living apes and monkeys indicted the same event happened as long ago as 30 million to 35 million years ago (Scientific American and Red Orbit). The preliminary age for Saadanius hijazensis of 28 million to 29 million years narrows down the timing of the divergence between apes and Old World monkeys to no earlier and not much later than 29 million years ago, splitting the difference between the two estimates.
In a press release from the National Science Foundation (NSF), University of Michigan anthropologist William Sanders said, "This new primate gives researchers a better idea of the time of the divergence of Old World monkeys and apes, and a better knowledge about what the ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes looked like. This discovery also helps identify difficult-to-recognize early apes, which had few features of modern apes."
More at the source, which is linked to in the title.
Nature: New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys (abstract only; full article only if you have a subscription or are willing to pay US$32). Publicly available news article here. Link to non-embeddable Nature videos here.
Videoscan of the face of Saadanius hijazensis, a new genus and species of primate that lived in the Arabian Peninsula during the late Oligocene epoch, 29-28 million years before present.
By Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner
It is not every day that one goes out looking for dinosaur bones, but instead finds a fossil that may not be as glamorous, but is even more important to science than yet another dinosaur. University of Michigan paleontologist Iyad Zalmout found that out for himself last year, when he went exploring western Saudi Arabia for dinosaur fossils, but instead discovered what may be one of the last common ancestors of apes and Old World monkeys.
What Dr. Zalmout found was the partial skull of Saadanius hijazensis, a primitive primate that displayed all the shared characteristics of both Old World monkeys, such as baboons, macaques, and colubus monkeys, and apes, such as gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and, oh, yes, humans, but lacked the specialized distinguishing features of either group. This combination of traits is exactly what a common ancestor of both groups would have.
Note only does Saadanius hijazensis fill in a chapter in the fossil history leading to humans that scientists had long suspected to have existed but never had read before, it puts a date on that chapter with greater precision than scientists working from previously available evidence had been able to infer. Paleontologits working from fossil evidence speculated that the split between the apes and Old World monkeys could have occurred as recently as 23 million to 25 million years ago (National Science Foundation). On the other hand, analysis of DNA from living apes and monkeys indicted the same event happened as long ago as 30 million to 35 million years ago (Scientific American and Red Orbit). The preliminary age for Saadanius hijazensis of 28 million to 29 million years narrows down the timing of the divergence between apes and Old World monkeys to no earlier and not much later than 29 million years ago, splitting the difference between the two estimates.
In a press release from the National Science Foundation (NSF), University of Michigan anthropologist William Sanders said, "This new primate gives researchers a better idea of the time of the divergence of Old World monkeys and apes, and a better knowledge about what the ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes looked like. This discovery also helps identify difficult-to-recognize early apes, which had few features of modern apes."
More at the source, which is linked to in the title.
Nature: New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys (abstract only; full article only if you have a subscription or are willing to pay US$32). Publicly available news article here. Link to non-embeddable Nature videos here.
Videoscan of the face of Saadanius hijazensis, a new genus and species of primate that lived in the Arabian Peninsula during the late Oligocene epoch, 29-28 million years before present.