New Fossils Reveal The Mother Continent for South American Monkeys

Illustration of Perupithecus ucayaliensis by Jorge González

Arguably one of the best nicknames for the continent Africa is that of 'The Mother Continent', a name owing to the fact that our own Mitochondrial Eve can be traced to this location. However, Homo sapiens was not the only primate species to derive out of Africa. A paper recently published in the journal Nature has revealed new fossil material which sheds light on the origins of South America’s iconic monkey species. In 2010, a team of paleontologists led by Los Angeles County Natural History Museum curator Dr. Ken Campbell uncovered the teeth of three novel extinct primates in the east Peruvian Amazon. The first specimen took two years to identify as a result of its anatomy being distinct from that of modern day South American monkeys, the platyrrhines. The date of this species was traced to the Eocene epoch approximately 36 million years ago, making it ten million years older than any other fossil platyrrhine known. As a result, the newly named Perupithecus ucayaliensis is considered by scientists as a significant piece of the puzzle that is the evolutionary history of South American monkeys.

Possible Last Common Ancestor of Modern Great Apes Discovered

A species of ancient great ape which lived in Spain was recently unearthed and named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus lived approximately 11.9 million years ago, and scientists have announced that it was possibly the last common ancestor of the modern great ape species (chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and humans). A recent examination of this ape's pelvis bone by an anatomy expert now suggests that it had intriguing features which give clues as to the evolution of modern great apes. Please read this article for more information on this exciting discovery:
Fossil of great ape sheds light on evolution