Discovery of oldest primate skeleton, ancestor of humans and apes
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - 16:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a primate provides insight into the phase of evolution when the lineage of modern monkeys, apes and humans split away. The fossil represents a new species, Archicebus achilles, and was unearthed in China. The skeleton was digitally reconstructed with synchrotron X-rays at the ESRF, allowing to study in detail this fossil radically different from any other primate, living or fossil. The results are published in Nature.