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VideoHubei, China - Chinese scientists have discovered a fossil that they claim is the earliest known ancestor of humans. The find has challenged the long-held belief that apes began their evolution in Africa. The Archicebus Achilles was discovered in 2002 on a lake bed in China's Hubei province, but took more than 10 years of analysis for scientists to declare it as the world's oldest known primate fossil. The scientists contend that the 55-million-year-old fossil, which looks a bit like a mouse with monkey-like feet, is the world's oldest known ape-like creature. "Now after we discovered this fossil, we can...

The study of the world’s oldest early primate skeleton has brought light to a pivotal event in primate and human evolution: that of the branch split that led to monkeys, apes and humans (anthropoids) on one side, and living tarsiers on the other. The fossil, that was unearthed from an ancient lake bed in central China’s Hubei Province, represents a previously unknown genus and species named Archicebus Achilles. The results of the research were published on 6 June 2013 in Nature. Oldest primate fossil rewrites evolutionary break in human lineage The fossil, which is 55 million years old and dates...