Stunning fossil Of human ancestors Discovered - [Pictures] and Latest News
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- A 47-million-year-old fossil is being heralded as an early human ancestor
- Scientist says the find is the “most complete primate fossil before human burial”
- The fossil was discovered in the 80s, but was split between collections until now
Scientists hailed Tuesday a 47-million-year-old fossil of an ancient “small cat”-sized primate as a possible common ancestor of monkeys, humans and other primates .
Scientists say the fossil, dubbed “Ida,” is a transitional species, living around the time the primate lineage split into two groups: A line that would eventually produce humans and monkeys, and another that would give rise to primates such as lemurs.
The fossil was formally named Darwinius masillae, in honor of the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.
“This is the most complete primate fossil before human burial,” said Dr. Jorn Hurum, of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, who led the study of the fossil, a young female primate.
“And it’s not a few million years old; it’s 47 million years old,” Hurum said, speaking at a news conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The fossil was discovered in 1983 in the Messel Pit, Germany, near Frankfurt, and had been until recently in private collections, according to an article published Tuesday in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science.
The fossil is believed to be an ancestor of monkeys, humans and other primates.
source: CNN , plosone.org
Figure 1. Darwinius masillae, new genus and species, from Messel in Germany.
(A)— Plate A (PMO 214.214) showing holotype skeleton in right lateral view. (B)— Plate B (WDC-MG-210) left side of holotype (reversed for comparison with plate A). Plates show part and counterpart of the same skeleton. Plates have different museum numbers because they are in different museum collections. Note the exceptional completeness of the articulated skeleton in plate A, with left and right hands and the right foot complete, including distal phalanges, and the tail complete to the tip. Stained matrix shows the soft-tissue body outline. Abdomen contains organic remains of food in the digestive tract. All of plate A and parts 1 and 2 on plate B (enclosed in dashed lines) are genuine; remainder of plate B was fabricated during preparation.