© phys.orgA team of researchers from the George Washington University and the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont identified a new genus and species of small ape that existed before the evolutionary split of humans/great apes (hominids) and gibbons (the 'lesser apes' or hylobatids). Credit: Marta Palmero / Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont
It lived 11.6 million years ago and precedes the divergence between hominids and hylobatids Researchers have described the
new genus and species, Pliobates cataloniae, based on a skeleton recovered from the landfill of Can Mata (Catalonia, NE Spain). The fossil remains belong to an adult female individual that weighed 4-5 kg and moved through the forest canopy by climbing and suspending below branches.
Pliobates has important implications for reconstructing the last common ancestor of hominids and hylobatids. The fossil remains belong to an adult female individual named 'Laia' by her discoverers.
Living hominoids are a group of primates that includes the small-bodied apes (the lesser apes, or gibbons and siamangs, which constitute the family Hylobatidae) and the larger-bodied great apes (orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees), which, along with humans, belong to the family Hominidae.
All extant hominoids share several features, such as the lack of external tail, an orthograde body plan that enables an upright trunk position, and several cranial characteristics. All these features might have been present in the common ancestor of hominids and hylobatids that, according to molecular data, would have lived about 15-20 million years ago.
Comment: More puzzle pieces are coming to light that increase our understanding of the tree of life and our place within it.