Posted on 11/18/2004 7:00:02 PM PST by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ape that lived 13 million years ago in what is now Spain may have been the last common ancestor of all apes, including chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans, researchers said on Thursday.
The fossil provides a missing link, not directly between humans and an apelike ancestor, but between great apes and lesser apes such as gibbons, the researchers said.
The creature, named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, had a stiff lower spine and flexible wrists that would have made it a tree-climbing specialist, the researchers write in this week's issue of the journal Science.
"This probably is very close to the last common ancestor of great apes and humans," said Salvador Moya-Sola of the Miguel Crusafont Institute of Paleontology in Barcelona, Spain, who led the study.
Remains of an ape, named 'Pierolapithecus
catalaunicus' are presented near Barcelona, Spain
on November 18, 2004. The creature that lived 13
million years ago in what is now Spain may have
been the last common ancestor of all apes,
including chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and
humans researchers said. (Albert Gea/Reuters)
It would have looked something like a modern chimpanzee and probably ate fruit, said his colleague Meike Kohler.
"It may have looked a little bit in the face comparable to that of a chimp but with some differences," she said in a telephone briefing.
"I would call it a missing link, because it really fills a gap," she added.
About 25 million years ago, old world monkeys, which now live in Africa and Asia, split off from the line that eventually led to apes.
The great apes -- orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans -- are believed to have branched off from the lesser apes such as gibbons and siamangs about 11 million to 16 million years ago.
Humans branched off from chimpanzees an estimated 7 million years ago.
The researchers had just begun digging at the site near Barcelona when a bulldozer turned up the first bits of the fossilized skeleton. They immediately knew they had something unique.
The animal's rib cage, spine and wrist all looked like a great ape's, specialized for climbing. Monkeys, in contrast, while excellent climbers, have more general movement abilities and are not so specialized.
But the new find has small hands, unlike modern great apes.
"This newly discovered fossil, a new ape species from Spain called Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, or its close relative, may have been the last common ancestor of all living great apes, or close to that ancestor," said Brooks Hanson, deputy editor for physical sciences at Science magazine.
"Although this group includes humans, it's important to remember that we've had millions of years of evolution since then, she added."
If it is the "missing link" then why are the lesser primates still here? Why are any primates sill here at all if they evolved into humans?
Answer: Interspecies evolution is bunk.
That is one of the biggest misconceptions about evolution. Parent species don't have to disappear just because they give off other species...
I don't believe in (MACRO)evolution either.
Then where are the half-ape half-humans? Where are the current evolving species? Where are the proto-humans and super-humans? A few million years is NOT window enough for vast, out and out interspecies evolution across the globe. Sorry, it's bunk. And before anyone presumes, this is not coming from a "fundamentalist."
Look at the numerous "missing links" - most discredited, the rest tenuous at best.
Only had to wait 20.
At the risk of attracting another variety of fundie flames, they seem to be missing a few pieces out of this particular puzzle. Stick 'em together a little differently and it might look more like James Carville.
I thought Eaker was the missing link ? Or was he just missin a few links ??
It is nothing but small changes (so small we can't see 'em) accummulating over time, then - BOOM! - you gots sumpin' new!
I want to see if he's got BIG toes or THUMBS down there!
Why are there asses, zebras, horses, donkeys and so forth? They all have common ancestory as well. A rather small three toed horse like beastie from what is now the American continent. Some of them can interbreed, but the crosses are generally infertile. Some examples would be mules and burros.
There never was such a thing.
Where are the current evolving species?
All around you.
Where are the proto-humans and super-humans?
Protohumans died out because humans were better adapted to live in the changing envioronment than the former. I'm not sure what you have in mind with super-humans.
LMAO........Too funny !
And humans and the like?? We are not equestrials afterall...
And the evidence for the mass amounts of positive mutation required to transform primates to humans would be where?
To make it clear, I think intraspecies evolution happens, but not on a radical enough level to transform a species to another.
And next you will tell me that Friedrich Nietszche is the missing link to our future.
You summed it up well when you said, "There never was such a thing."
The proto-humans, seemingly spawned from primates, would've been better adapted than the primates, but the primates are still here and the proto-humans aren't. Holes. Everywhere holes, I tell you...
You can put a suit on him, but he is still an ape.
None of the primates of 13 million years ago are still here. They have all evolved forward.
Some took one path (such as the apes), some another (such as the chimps and humans), some yet another (such as the gibbons and their cousins). But in no case is there a primate specie alive today that is exactly as it was 13 million years ago.
All have changed.
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