Previously Unknown Primate Uncovered Outside of Egypt

Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown anthropoid primate, which may be a forerunner of today's apes and humans. After unearthing the fossil from the Zallah Oasis, researchers are now taking a closer look at it.

The species lived about 30 million years ago during the Oligocene period. Named Apidium, the species is the first example of its kind to be found outside of Egypt.

"Apidium is interesting because it was the first early anthropoid primate ever to be found and described, in 1908," said K. Christopher Beard, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The oldest known Apidium fossils are about 31 million years old, while the youngest are 29 million. Before our discovery in Libya, only three species of Apidium were ever recovered in Egypt. People had come up with the idea that these primates had evolved locally in Egypt."

However, it appears as if the species instead dispersed across North Africa. The researchers believe that shifting climatic and environmental conditions helped shape the distribution of the species, which then affected their evolution.

"We've found evidence that climate change-not warming, but cooling and drying-across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary probably is the root cause in kicking anthropoid evolution into overdrive," said Beard. "All of these anthropoids, which were our distant relatives, were living up in the trees-none of them were coming down. When the world became cooler and dryer in this period, what was previously a continuous belt of forest became more fragmented. This created barriers to gene flow and movement of animals from one part of forest to what used to be adjacent forest."

The findings reveal a bit more about this ancient species, and shows that they dispersed far more widely than first thought.

The findings are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

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