Fossils reveal the evolutionary split between monkeys and apes

Scientists have discovered fossils of two newfound hierarch species , dating back to 25 million years ago . One fossil belong to the group that contains gravid apes ( hominids ) , while the other is from the group that include Old World scallywag . The discovery may score the second when our primate ancestors first diverged into the two filiation we have today .

As humans , we are naturally peculiar about our own evolutionary chronicle . So researchers have long seek to pinpoint the accurate import when order Primates split into the two distinct mathematical group , monkeys and aper . grounds from DNA studies suggests that the divergence from a vulgar ancestor happened between 25 and 30 million days ago . But the oldest known fossils of both groups has only been dated as far back as 20 million years ago .

For the past 10 years , researchers from the U.S. and Tanzania have been digging for fossils in Tanzania ’s Rukwa Rift Basin . In the 2011 - 2012 season , a team lead by Ohio University craniate paleontologist Nancy Stevens receive two new hierarch mintage : ape root Rukwapithecus fleaglei and the Old World monkey Nsungwepithecus gunnelli . ScienceNOW explains :

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Both specimen , consisting of tooth and partial jaws , were find in Rukwa Rift sediments date by several technique , include the often used argon - argon method , to 25.2 million years ago . The team identified them as ape and Old World monkey ancestors from the features of their molars , which paleontologist routinely utilize to severalise primates apart . For instance , Stevens says , Nsungwepithecus “ has a much more triangular outline ” of its last lower molar than Rukwapithecus , and there are “ a number of other major differences in the shape and lieu of the cusps and crests that course along the chewing open of the tooth . ”The two metal money also show other dental features that aggroup them with tardy Old World monkeys and apes , but are still unlike enough to be sort as freestanding — and more ancient — species .

The Rukwa Rift in Tanzania is part of a architectonic - dental plate boundary send for the East African Rift . Here the Earth ’s crust is being pulled apart , cause changes to the landscape . These tectonic change , along with environmental and climatical change , probably helped facilitate the evolutionary tear , though the “ how ” of it all is still a mo of a mystery , researchers say .

More body of work is involve to figure out why the groups diverge . And further research is also apparently call for to even prove the two new species are what they seem to be . At least one scientist , anthropologist Terry Harrison , is unconvinced that Nsungwepithecus is a primate and consider that Rukwapithecus could actually be a specie that precede the ape - monkey rent .

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