Small-bodied, long-armed apes called gibbons swing rapidly through the trees, far outpacing scientists’ attempts to decipher these creatures’ evolutionary story.
Now, you can get a Partial upper jaw and seven individual teethThe gibbons found in close proximity to a Chinese village in Southwest China have given rise to the idea that the oldest known gibbons may have lived there between 7 and 8 million years ago. Researchers report in the October Journal of Human Evolution..
These fossils and 14 teeth that were previously found at the site and at a nearby location belong to an ancient species of hylobatid called Yuanmoupithecus ZyuanXueping Ji, a paleoanthropologist at the Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology (China), and his colleagues agree. Hylobatids is a family that includes approximately 20 species living gibbons as well as a black-furred gibbon known the siamang. It lives in tropical forests across northeastern India and Indonesia.
Ji’s group has presumed that Y. xiaoyuan Since the introduction of the species in 2006 Chinese publications, there was an ancient gibbon. To confirm that suspicion, however, additional fossils were necessary.
The newly discovered upper jaw piece — found by a local villager and given to Ji during fieldwork around a decade ago — contains four teeth, including a partly erupted molar that helped researchers identify it as the remains of an infant that died before reaching age 2.
Comparisons with fossils of ancient primates as well as modern apes lead to some interesting conclusions Y. xiaoyuan The oldest gibbon, and it cast doubt on Two-year-old reports that a molar tooth from northern India was discovered in the past 13 million years.According to the team, it came from a Hylobatid.SN: 9/8/20). The fossil discovered in India was assigned to a specific species. Kapi ragnagarensisScientists say that, is an extinct South Asian primate group that was not closely related with modern-day primates.
An analysis of DNA from living primates has shown that hylobatids split from other apes in Africa around 22 million to 17 million years ago. But it’s a mystery when gibbon ancestors arrived in Eurasia, says paleoanthropologist and study coauthor Terry Harrison of New York University. There is a gap in fossil evidence that spans approximately 10,000,000 years between the estimated time that hylobatids appeared in Africa and evidence of their demise. Y. xiaoyuan Asia
Genetic evidence also supports the idea that Gibbon species today share a common ancestor approximately 8 million years backWhen? Y. xiaoyuan It was alive. “It could be that [Y. xiaoyuan] is the ancestor of all later gibbons,” Harrison says. If so, Y. xiaoyuan He suspects that he was related to a modern gibbon ancestor.
There are bumps and depressions in the chewing surfaces as well as other jaw features. Y. xiaoyuan look much like those of living gibbons, Ji’s team says. Researchers suggest that some traits found in fossil species may have been precursors to slightly different traits in modern gibbons.
They estimate that based on the molar sizes they use, Y. xiaoyuan It weighed six kilograms, which is similar to today’s gibbons. This is a Molar structure. Y. xiaoyuan Harrison says Harrison is focused on eating fruits like most gibbons today.
Ji’s group “makes a very good case that [Y. xiaoyuan] is a hylobatid,” says paleoanthropologist David Alba of Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona.
However, the evolutionary status K. ragnagarensisAlba, who was not part of the new study, said that only one tooth from this species has been discovered. This leaves it unsolved.
