Pierolapithecus catalaunicus
From Freepedia
| Pierolapithecus catalaunicus
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| Pierolapithecus catalaunicus |
Pierolapithecus catalaunicus is the name of a species of primate which lived about 13 million years ago in the Miocene in what is now Spain. It is believed by some to be a common ancestor of both modern humans and the other great apes or at least a species that brings us closer to a common ancestor than any previous fossil discovery.
The species was described by a team of Spanish paleoanthropologists led by Salvador Moyà-Solà on the basis of a fossil specimen discovered in December 2002. The finding was first reported in the journal Science on November 19, 2004.
Pierolapithecus had special adaptations for tree climbing, just as humans and other great apes do: a wide, flat ribcage, a stiff lower spine, flexible wrists, and shoulder blades that lay along its back. Monkeys and lesser apes show more generalized characteristics. The ape does have more primitive, monkeylike features, however, such as a sloped face and short fingers and toes.
The hypothesis that this new species was an ancestor of all modern great apes is controversial due to its location in Spain, which would seem to contradict the single-origin hypothesis that the first humans were from East Africa. However, the Mediterranean Sea expanded and contracted frequently in the past, permitting the dispersal of life between Africa and Europe and the Pierolapithecus could have lived on both continents.
Rather than a full common ancestor, it is been suggested that the species may be ancestoral to humans, chimpanzees and gorillas but not orangutans, given certain characteristics of the face.
