The brand new discovery fills a long-missing hole within the evolutionary historical past

The oldest gibbon fossil was present in southwest China.

The earliest fossil of a gibbon has been found by a staff of researchers, filling a long-standing evolutionary hole within the historical past of apes.

The research that was printed Journal of Human Evolutionfocuses on the hylobatid monkey household, which incorporates 20 species of residing gibbons present in tropical Asia from northeastern India to Indonesia.

“Fossil stays of hylobatids are very uncommon, and most specimens are remoted tooth and fragmentary jaw bones present in caves in southern China and southeast Asia that date again not more than 2 million years,” explains anthropology professor Terry Harrison. : New York University and one of many authors of the paper. “This new discover extends the hylobatid fossil file again to 7 to eight million years in the past and, extra particularly, strengthens our understanding of the evolution of this ape household.”

The fossil discovered within the Yuanmou area of southwest China’s Yunnan Province is of a small monkey known as Yuanmoupithecus xiaoyuan. The research evaluation centered on dental and cranial specimens Yuanmupitecuswhich included the higher jaw of a younger baby who was lower than two years outdated on the time of loss of life.

Utilizing molar tooth measurement as a information, Yuanmupitecus It was considered shut in measurement to trendy gibbons, weighing about 6 kilograms or about 13 kilos.

“Enamel and decrease face Yuanmupitecus are similar to trendy gibbon species, however in some options the fossil species was extra primitive and signifies that it’s the ancestor of all residing species,” notes Harrison, a part of NYU’s Middle for the Examine of Human Origins.

Ji found the kid’s higher jaw throughout a discipline survey, and by evaluating it with trendy gibbon skulls housed on the Kunming Institute of Zoology, he was capable of establish it as a hylobatid. In 2018, he invited Harrison and different colleagues to work on specimens collected over the earlier 30 years, housed on the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology and the Yuanmu Man Museum.

“The remainder Yuanmupitecus they’re extraordinarily uncommon, however with diligence it has been doable to get better sufficient specimens to substantiate that the Yuanmou fossil monkey is certainly an in depth relative of residing hylobatids,” notes Harrison.

It Journal of Human Evolution the research additionally discovered that Capi ramnagarensiswhich is considered an earlier kind of hylobatid primarily based on a single fossil mole remoted from India, is just not a hylobatid in spite of everything, however a member of a extra primitive group of primates not carefully associated to trendy apes. .

“Genetic research recommend that hylobatids diverged from the lineage of nice apes and people about 17 to 22 million years in the past, so there may be nonetheless a 10-million-year hole within the fossil file to fill,” warns Harrison. . “With continued exploration of promising fossil websites in China and elsewhere in Asia, it’s hoped that extra discoveries will assist fill in these necessary gaps within the evolutionary historical past of hylobatids.”

Reference. “The Earliest Hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China” by Xueping Jia, Terry Harrison, Yinqi Zhang, Yun Wu, Chunxia Zhang, Jinming Hui, Dongdong Wai, Yemao Hou, Track Li, Guofu Wang, and Zhengzhen Wang, September 13, 2020. , Journal of Human Evolution.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103251

The analysis was funded by the Nationwide Pure Science Basis of China, the Pure Science Basis of Yunnan, and the Strategic Precedence Analysis Program of the Chinese language Academy of Sciences.

The researchers additionally accessed skeletal and paleontological collections on the American Museum of Pure Historical past in New York and the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past in Washington, D.C., amongst others, in conducting their research.