The million year old monkey: New evidence confirms the antiquity of fossil primate
The million year old monkey: New evidence confirms the antiquity of fossil primate
September 4, 2015
An international team of scientists have dated a species of fossil monkey found across the Caribbean to just over 1 million years old.
The discovery was made after the researchers recovered a fossil tibia (shin bone) belonging to the species of extinct monkey Antillothrix bernensis from an underwater cave in Altagracia Province, Dominican Republic. The fossil was embedded in a limestone rock that was dated using the Uranium-series technique.
In a paper published this week in the well renowned international journal, the Journal of Human Evolution, the team use three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to confirm that the fossil tibia does indeed belong to Antillothrix bernensis, a primate that we now know existed on Hispaniola relatively unchanged for over a million years. This monkey, roughly the size of a small cat, was tree-dwelling and lived largely on a diet of fruit and leaves.
Dr Helen Green of Melbourne University’s School of Earth Sciences, a lead researcher involved in the dating of the limestone surrounding the fossils, said the question of the age of primate fossils from this region has puzzled scientists since the days of Darwin and Wallace.
More:
http://scienceblog.com/80045/million-year-monkey-evidence-confirms-antiquity-fossil-primate/#YX9gGEGwl6Ywo8Fe.99
Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122842116
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Information on the discovery:
Underwater Windows to the Lost World of Caribbean Monkeys
by Dr. Alfred L. Rosenberger
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology
Siobhán B. Cooke
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Photography by Curt Bowen & Walter Pickel
. . .
We notified our Dominican colleague Renato Rimoli, a zoologist who discovered the first Dominican fossil monkey some 30 years ago, and began to prepare to return to the site of the initial discovery. Three months later, we came armed with permits and an emergency grant from the research foundation of our university (City University of New York) that financed our trip, with Walter and Curt diving. It took them only 20 minutes in the water to find that our monkey was exactly where they left it, and bring it out. A few more hours of careful picking through rubble yielded more bones, a forearm, thigh, vertebrae, and even fragile ribs. The skull was in about 20 pieces, which were all glued together after a few hours of jigsaw puzzling in our Brooklyn College lab.
Once done, we knew this was a major discovery. And the technical analysis began. We worked quickly to introduce the most complete skull, dentition, and partial skeleton of any monkey ever found in the Caribbean, into the scientific literature in the form of a brief report. Later will come a more exhaustive anatomical and evolutionary assessment. The whole process will take a few years to complete, since we will have to compare our specimen with many other New World monkey species, living and extinct, from the Caribbean and the mainland.
We identified the fossil as Antillothrix bernensis, based on its dentition. It is only the second specimen ever found of this species. Luckily, the first one had a few of its teeth intact – that’s all it was, actually, three teeth – so we were able to match them up with ours. The name Antillothrix bernensis comes from Latin and Greek, like all taxonomic names, and does make sense in translation. “Bernensis” refers to a place, the cave site where the first specimen was discovered, Cueva de Berna, also in the Dominican Republic. “Antillothrix” is a compound term that fuses “antillo,” for Antilles, with “thrix.” “Thrix,” which means “hair” in Greek, is a term with historic significance. It was often added to a Latin or Greek root-word (like antillo) when scientists gave names to newly discovered species of New World monkeys. The tradition dates back hundreds of years. It may have begun when a small marmoset monkey was named Callithrix, which simply means “pretty hair.” Now we often use it when forming names to signify that the primate is a New World (not an Old World) monkey. Xenothrix, meaning “strange New World monkey,” is another example. It is the fossil primate from Jamaica. All of this follows one of the oldest traditions in taxonomy, conjuring up Latin-like names whose meanings relate well to the particular animal (or plant) in question. On the practical side, it is a simple binary system that provides each species a unique identifier, so it minimizes confusion.
Regarding the biological information we can glean from the fossil, first comes the forensics, then the adaptations. With a skull and long bones in hand, we estimate the monkey might have weighed roughly 2 lbs. It was a young adult, with teeth that did not have time to become very worn from feeding, which normally happens in wild mammals – and even in humans. Its last molar tooth might not even have been fully rooted in the jaw. It was probably a male, since the sockets for its canine teeth indicate massive roots, as would be expected if he had large, tusk-like canine teeth. The shapes of its teeth were not at all unusual, designed for eating squishy fruits and insects, meaning your average New World monkey diet. Its lower limbs, however, were more heavily built than in other New World monkeys, with a relatively short thigh. So, it must have moved differently from most living mainland forms. We cannot yet tell whether it was totally a tree dweller, as all of the living New World monkeys are, or if it also used the ground for feeding.
More:
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com/articles/antillothrix/antillothrix.html