Apes Dispersed From Africa?
In Nakali, Kenya a 10-million-year-old jawbone with teeth was found in deposits of volcanic mud. Yukata Kunimatsu of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues reported that this fossil is the first vintage to be found in the region since 1982. The discovery of this jawbone is believed to represent a new genus of great ape which has been named Nakalipithecus nakayama. Researchers say that this fossil bears resemblance to a slightly younger, less prehistoric fossil found in Greece. The finding of Nakalipithecus nakayama suggests that there were at least some large apes in East Africa before the human-gorilla divergence. All of these findings suggest that apes were most likely dispersing out of Africa.
Posted by Kayla Carrero(9)
posted by PWH @ 10:54 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Did the scientists know or give a guess as to what time period this "ape" lived in? Possibly still around the time of Pangea? Interesting post.
-Christine McConville
If this fossil bears resemblance to a slightly younger, less prehistoric fossil found in Greece, we can also infer that there were large apes there also. I wonder if further research would give us the ability to determine where exactly did this genus originated from?
Vanessa Raphael (9)
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