A team of scientists has discovered the first fossil of gibbon. This discovery, occurred in the Yuanmou area of Yunnan province in the south-west of China, is of great importance and it goes to fill a gap in the evolutionary history of monkeys. This work reported in the Journal of Human Evolution is centered on the family of hylobatids, a groups of monkeys that lives in tropical Asia, from northeastern India to Indonesia.
The fossil found is of a small monkey called Yuanmoupithecus xiaoyuan. The remains, which include seven teeth and skull fragments of a young individual, initially suggested that it was a small catarrhine of the Late Miocene. After a careful analysis several synapomorphies were found and this helps supporting a close phylogenetic relationship with the existing hylobatids.
The hylobatids are a family of monkeys that includes about 20 species of gibbons, whose fossil remains are very rare and are usually found isolated teeth and fragments of maxillary bones, dating about 2 million years ago.
“Hylobatidsfossil remains are very rare, and most specimens are isolated teeth and fragmentary jaw bones found in cave sites in southern China and southeast Asiadating back no more than 2 million years ago” observes Harrison, one of the scientists in charge of the research.
As a result of the discovery of this fossil of hylobatids dating back 7/8 million yearsago, it has become possible to greatly extend the documentation we have on this family and to improve and understanding it’s evolution, filling a critical gap in the evolutionary history of hominids that had remained elusive until now.
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