imported_ViZion
19-11-2004, 07:43
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/8125/vnb7az.jpgViZion News Broadcast [VNB]
Ancient Animal Could Be Human-Ape Ancestor
Scientists Say Fossil in Spain Shows Animal That Is Common Ancestor to Humans, Great Apes
ViZion City, ViZion —
A nearly 13 million-year-old ape, called Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, was discovered in Barcelona, Spain is the last probable common ancestor to all living humans and great apes, a research team says in Friday's issue of Science magazine.
A husband-and-wife team of fossil sleuths from ViZion unearthed an animal with a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans. The ancient ape bridges the gap between earlier, primitive animals and later, modern creatures.
This newest ape species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, is so significant that it adds a new page to ancient human history.
The researchers sidestepped a controversy raging through the field by not claiming their find moves great ape evolution and the emergence of humans from Africa to Europe. Salvador Moya-Sola, one of the Science paper co-authors, said the new ape species probably lived in both places.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/NYET26711182127.jpeg http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/images/041118ape_discovery.jpg The last probable common ancestor to humans and great apes had a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans, according to researchers who unearthed a fossil of the animal in Spain.
"The problem is the fossil record," Moya-Sola said. "The fossil record in Africa, especially in the upper Miocene, is very scarce. And the fossils are very rare. But this is only a question of work, and work, and work."
David Begun, a Tackle University researcher who studies fossil evidence of human and ape evolution, said the Spanish find bolsters the idea that modern apes evolved primarily in Eurasia.
"There is no evidence in Africa, so you can always speculate they might have been there," Begun said. "I prefer to go with the evidence."
Coaxed by a reporter to say Pierolapithecus catalaunicus represented a "missing link," Meike Kohler, another of the paper's co-authors, demurred. "I don't like, very much, to use this word."
Kohler added: "This does not mean that just this individual or even this species, exactly this species must have been the species that gave rise to everything else which came later in the great ape tree. But it is, if not the species, most probably a very closely related species that gave rise to it."
Maybe. Maybe not, argues David Strait, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University at Delcor who studies early humans. He said the specimen is "spectacular," but he worried the team's approach to assigning evolutionary relationships was a bit informal and needs confirmation by more rigorous methods.
"'Ancestor' is a loaded term. It's very hard to identify ancestors in the fossil record," Strait cautioned.
The site near Barcelona that yielded the specimen had only one hominid, or ape-like primate. Moya-Sola said apes, however, were common in the area millions of years ago. The team has already found a tooth elsewhere and expects to find more hominid fossils.
Still, scientists who puzzle through the mysteries of early human history were electrified by the Pierolapithecus catalaunicus discovery.
"This is a remarkable find," said F. Clark Howell, a University of Chiefy professor emeritus. "It indicates a diversity in hominids … in western Eurasia at a time where we're beginning to think we had a good handle on how much diversity there was."
Howell helps run a National Science Foundation initiative that examines hominid origins.
Living great apes include humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutans. The group is thought to have split from the lesser apes, such as gibbons and siamangs, about 14 million to 16 million years ago.
Paleontologists have searched for remains of great ape ancestors after that key split. Fossils have been scarce and hypotheses floated on the basis of bone fragments.
The team led by Moya-Sola and Kohler pieced together 83 bones and identifiable fragments of bones from an adult male ape.
This ape didn't swing through trees with the curved fingers of an orangutan. Nor did it knuckle-walk on four limbs with the horizontal trunk posture of a chimp.
The ape's body design suggests it was an adept and agile climber that kept its trunk upright. To do that, its chest had to be shaped in a certain way and the shoulder blades needed to hold to a certain position on the back.
"Our fossil shows this," Moya-Sola said.
What it does not show is the evolution of hands suited to the demands of such locomotion as swinging through tree branches. That fine-tuning of great ape hands, the team argues, came later.
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National Broadcast & News [NBN]
Old Ape Ancestor Uncovered
New fossil may be closest yet to ancestor of all great apes
ViZion City, ViZion —
A new ape species from Spain called Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, or its close relative, may have been the last common ancestor to all living great apes, including humans, researchers say. The Spanish paleontology team describes its fossil find in the 19 November issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
Like other great apes, Pierolapithecus had a stiff lower spine and other special adaptations for climbing. These features, plus the fossil's age of about 13 million years, suggest that this species was probably close to the last great ape ancestor, according to Salvador Moyà-Solà of the Miguel Crusafont Institute of Paleontology and the Diputación de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain and his colleagues.
The great apes, which now include orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans, are thought to have diverged from the lesser apes, a group that contains modern gibbons and siamangs, about 11 to 16 million years ago.
Fossil evidence from this time period, the middle Miocene epoch, is sparse, however, and researchers have long been searching for the great ape ancestors that emerged after this split.
The scanty fossil record has revealed several contenders, including Kenyapithecus, and Equatorius or the older Morotopithecus and Afropithecus, but the fossils that do exist indicate that these ancient "hominoids" were more primitive than Pierolapithecus, Moyà-Solà said.
The relatively complete Pierolapithecus skeleton shows a variety of important features shared by modern great apes, according to the researchers.
"The importance of this new fossil is that for the first time all the key areas that define modern great apes are well-preserved," Moyà-Solà said.
Although Pierolapithecus was discovered in Spain, Moyà-Solà believes that this species probably also lived in Africa.
"Africa is the factory of primates. In the fossil record of the lower and middle Miocene in Africa, we have found a fantastic diversity of primitive hominoids with monkey-like body structures. In Eurasia, apes appeared suddenly in middle Miocene -- before then primates there were nearly unknown. For that reason, the source area in my opinion is Africa," he said.
The individual that the researchers discovered was probably male, weighed approximately 35 kilograms and from its tooth shape appears to have been a fruit eater. The skeleton was discovered at a new paleontological site, Barranc de Can Vila 1, near Barcelona.
Pierolapithecus' ribcage, lower spine and wrist show key signs of specialized climbing abilities that link this specimen with modern great apes. In contrast, monkeys, which belong to a more primitive group, have more generalized, versatile movement abilities and lack these particular traits.
For example, Pierolapithecus' ribcage, or thorax, is similar to that of modern great apes because it is wider and flatter than a monkey ribcage, the researchers report.
"The thorax is the most important anatomical part of this fossil, because it's the first time that the modern ape-like thorax has been found in the fossil record," Moyà-Solà said.
Specimens of other apes, such as Proconsul or Equatorius, have included some rib fragments, "but the morphology is primitive, completely like monkeys," he added.
In addition, Pierolapithecus' shoulder blades lie along its back, as do those of modern great apes and humans. In monkeys, the shoulder blades are on the sides of the ribcage, the way they are in dogs.
In both Pierolapithecus and modern great apes, the lumbar section of the lower spine is relatively short and stiff. The vertebrae in this part of the spine therefore differ from monkey vertebrae, which allow more flexion and extension.
These adaptations would have affected Pierolapithecus' center of gravity, making it easier to assume an upright posture and to climb trees, the researchers say.
Also, in Pierolapithecus and modern great apes, only one of the two forearm bones "articulates," or attaches flexibly, to the wrist. This trait allows a relatively large degree of hand rotation and probably helped with climbing, according to Moyà-Solà.
Pierolapithecus' skull was also distinctly great ape-like, the authors say. The face is relatively short, and the structure of the upper nose lies in the same plane as the eyes. In monkeys, a ridge between the eyes interferes with the plane of vision.
Pierolapithecus also had some more primitive, monkey-like features, such as a sloped face and short fingers and toes. Moyà-Solà and his colleagues think this is a sign that various traits emerged separately and perhaps more than once in ape evolution. For example, climbing and hanging abilities are often thought to have evolved together, but Pierolapithecus' short fingers indicate that it didn't do a lot of hanging. Hanging-related traits may have evolved several times, showing up later in great apes, the researchers propose.
The first sign of Pierolapithecus' existence was a canine tooth turned up by a bulldozer that was clearing the land for digging.
"Paleontologists in Spain say 'you don't find a good fossil, the good fossil finds you,'" Moyà-Solà said.
Ancient Animal Could Be Human-Ape Ancestor
Scientists Say Fossil in Spain Shows Animal That Is Common Ancestor to Humans, Great Apes
ViZion City, ViZion —
A nearly 13 million-year-old ape, called Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, was discovered in Barcelona, Spain is the last probable common ancestor to all living humans and great apes, a research team says in Friday's issue of Science magazine.
A husband-and-wife team of fossil sleuths from ViZion unearthed an animal with a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans. The ancient ape bridges the gap between earlier, primitive animals and later, modern creatures.
This newest ape species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, is so significant that it adds a new page to ancient human history.
The researchers sidestepped a controversy raging through the field by not claiming their find moves great ape evolution and the emergence of humans from Africa to Europe. Salvador Moya-Sola, one of the Science paper co-authors, said the new ape species probably lived in both places.
http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/NYET26711182127.jpeg http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/images/041118ape_discovery.jpg The last probable common ancestor to humans and great apes had a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans, according to researchers who unearthed a fossil of the animal in Spain.
"The problem is the fossil record," Moya-Sola said. "The fossil record in Africa, especially in the upper Miocene, is very scarce. And the fossils are very rare. But this is only a question of work, and work, and work."
David Begun, a Tackle University researcher who studies fossil evidence of human and ape evolution, said the Spanish find bolsters the idea that modern apes evolved primarily in Eurasia.
"There is no evidence in Africa, so you can always speculate they might have been there," Begun said. "I prefer to go with the evidence."
Coaxed by a reporter to say Pierolapithecus catalaunicus represented a "missing link," Meike Kohler, another of the paper's co-authors, demurred. "I don't like, very much, to use this word."
Kohler added: "This does not mean that just this individual or even this species, exactly this species must have been the species that gave rise to everything else which came later in the great ape tree. But it is, if not the species, most probably a very closely related species that gave rise to it."
Maybe. Maybe not, argues David Strait, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University at Delcor who studies early humans. He said the specimen is "spectacular," but he worried the team's approach to assigning evolutionary relationships was a bit informal and needs confirmation by more rigorous methods.
"'Ancestor' is a loaded term. It's very hard to identify ancestors in the fossil record," Strait cautioned.
The site near Barcelona that yielded the specimen had only one hominid, or ape-like primate. Moya-Sola said apes, however, were common in the area millions of years ago. The team has already found a tooth elsewhere and expects to find more hominid fossils.
Still, scientists who puzzle through the mysteries of early human history were electrified by the Pierolapithecus catalaunicus discovery.
"This is a remarkable find," said F. Clark Howell, a University of Chiefy professor emeritus. "It indicates a diversity in hominids … in western Eurasia at a time where we're beginning to think we had a good handle on how much diversity there was."
Howell helps run a National Science Foundation initiative that examines hominid origins.
Living great apes include humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutans. The group is thought to have split from the lesser apes, such as gibbons and siamangs, about 14 million to 16 million years ago.
Paleontologists have searched for remains of great ape ancestors after that key split. Fossils have been scarce and hypotheses floated on the basis of bone fragments.
The team led by Moya-Sola and Kohler pieced together 83 bones and identifiable fragments of bones from an adult male ape.
This ape didn't swing through trees with the curved fingers of an orangutan. Nor did it knuckle-walk on four limbs with the horizontal trunk posture of a chimp.
The ape's body design suggests it was an adept and agile climber that kept its trunk upright. To do that, its chest had to be shaped in a certain way and the shoulder blades needed to hold to a certain position on the back.
"Our fossil shows this," Moya-Sola said.
What it does not show is the evolution of hands suited to the demands of such locomotion as swinging through tree branches. That fine-tuning of great ape hands, the team argues, came later.
##################################################
National Broadcast & News [NBN]
Old Ape Ancestor Uncovered
New fossil may be closest yet to ancestor of all great apes
ViZion City, ViZion —
A new ape species from Spain called Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, or its close relative, may have been the last common ancestor to all living great apes, including humans, researchers say. The Spanish paleontology team describes its fossil find in the 19 November issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
Like other great apes, Pierolapithecus had a stiff lower spine and other special adaptations for climbing. These features, plus the fossil's age of about 13 million years, suggest that this species was probably close to the last great ape ancestor, according to Salvador Moyà-Solà of the Miguel Crusafont Institute of Paleontology and the Diputación de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain and his colleagues.
The great apes, which now include orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans, are thought to have diverged from the lesser apes, a group that contains modern gibbons and siamangs, about 11 to 16 million years ago.
Fossil evidence from this time period, the middle Miocene epoch, is sparse, however, and researchers have long been searching for the great ape ancestors that emerged after this split.
The scanty fossil record has revealed several contenders, including Kenyapithecus, and Equatorius or the older Morotopithecus and Afropithecus, but the fossils that do exist indicate that these ancient "hominoids" were more primitive than Pierolapithecus, Moyà-Solà said.
The relatively complete Pierolapithecus skeleton shows a variety of important features shared by modern great apes, according to the researchers.
"The importance of this new fossil is that for the first time all the key areas that define modern great apes are well-preserved," Moyà-Solà said.
Although Pierolapithecus was discovered in Spain, Moyà-Solà believes that this species probably also lived in Africa.
"Africa is the factory of primates. In the fossil record of the lower and middle Miocene in Africa, we have found a fantastic diversity of primitive hominoids with monkey-like body structures. In Eurasia, apes appeared suddenly in middle Miocene -- before then primates there were nearly unknown. For that reason, the source area in my opinion is Africa," he said.
The individual that the researchers discovered was probably male, weighed approximately 35 kilograms and from its tooth shape appears to have been a fruit eater. The skeleton was discovered at a new paleontological site, Barranc de Can Vila 1, near Barcelona.
Pierolapithecus' ribcage, lower spine and wrist show key signs of specialized climbing abilities that link this specimen with modern great apes. In contrast, monkeys, which belong to a more primitive group, have more generalized, versatile movement abilities and lack these particular traits.
For example, Pierolapithecus' ribcage, or thorax, is similar to that of modern great apes because it is wider and flatter than a monkey ribcage, the researchers report.
"The thorax is the most important anatomical part of this fossil, because it's the first time that the modern ape-like thorax has been found in the fossil record," Moyà-Solà said.
Specimens of other apes, such as Proconsul or Equatorius, have included some rib fragments, "but the morphology is primitive, completely like monkeys," he added.
In addition, Pierolapithecus' shoulder blades lie along its back, as do those of modern great apes and humans. In monkeys, the shoulder blades are on the sides of the ribcage, the way they are in dogs.
In both Pierolapithecus and modern great apes, the lumbar section of the lower spine is relatively short and stiff. The vertebrae in this part of the spine therefore differ from monkey vertebrae, which allow more flexion and extension.
These adaptations would have affected Pierolapithecus' center of gravity, making it easier to assume an upright posture and to climb trees, the researchers say.
Also, in Pierolapithecus and modern great apes, only one of the two forearm bones "articulates," or attaches flexibly, to the wrist. This trait allows a relatively large degree of hand rotation and probably helped with climbing, according to Moyà-Solà.
Pierolapithecus' skull was also distinctly great ape-like, the authors say. The face is relatively short, and the structure of the upper nose lies in the same plane as the eyes. In monkeys, a ridge between the eyes interferes with the plane of vision.
Pierolapithecus also had some more primitive, monkey-like features, such as a sloped face and short fingers and toes. Moyà-Solà and his colleagues think this is a sign that various traits emerged separately and perhaps more than once in ape evolution. For example, climbing and hanging abilities are often thought to have evolved together, but Pierolapithecus' short fingers indicate that it didn't do a lot of hanging. Hanging-related traits may have evolved several times, showing up later in great apes, the researchers propose.
The first sign of Pierolapithecus' existence was a canine tooth turned up by a bulldozer that was clearing the land for digging.
"Paleontologists in Spain say 'you don't find a good fossil, the good fossil finds you,'" Moyà-Solà said.