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New Infant Cranium From The African Miocene Sheds Light On Ape Evolution.

Home
New Infant Cranium From The African Miocene Sheds Light On Ape Evolution.

Related Experiment Video

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Published on: January 7, 2019

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution.

Isaiah Nengo^1,2, Paul Tafforeau³, Christopher C Gilbert^4,5,6

¹Department of Anthropology, De Anza College, Cupertino, California 95104, USA.

|August 11, 2017

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Fossil ape cranium from Kenya reveals insights into early hominoid evolution. This discovery sheds light on the origins of apes and humans during the Miocene epoch.

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Area of Science:

Paleoanthropology
Primate Evolution
Fossil Discoveries

Background:

The evolutionary history of humans and apes (hominoids) is not well understood.
The African fossil record from the Miocene epoch primarily consists of isolated jaws and teeth, limiting knowledge of ape cranial evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

To describe the most complete fossil ape cranium found to date.
To investigate the cranial and dental features of a new fossil ape species from Kenya.

Main Methods:

Excavation and analysis of a fossil ape cranium (KNM-NP 59050) from the 13-million-year-old Middle Miocene site of Napudet, Kenya.
Synchrotron imaging to visualize unerupted permanent teeth.
Comparative morphological analysis with extant and fossil catarrhines.

Main Results:

Discovery of KNM-NP 59050, a new species of *Nyanzapithecus*, representing the most complete fossil ape cranium described.
The specimen exhibits a fully ossified tubular ectotympanic, a derived trait shared with crown catarrhines.
Dental development and morphology show some similarities to hylobatids but lack definitive hylobatid synapomorphies.

Conclusions:

Nyanzapithecines are suggested to be stem hominoids, closely related to the origin of extant apes.
Features resembling hylobatids may have evolved independently multiple times within catarrhine evolution.