Tiny 1 Ounce Archicebus Achilles is the Earliest Known Primate
Posted on June 5, 2013
The discovery of the earliest known fossil primate skeleton was revealed in a paper published in Nature. Archicebus achilles lived 55 million years ago. It represents a previously unknown genus. The fossil was found in an ancient lake bed in central China's Hubei Province, near the course of the modern Yangtze River.
The small tree-dwelling creature weighed only about 20 to 30 gram, about 1 ounce. It had a very long tail compared to its body. It had a trunk 2.8 inches (71 millimeters) long. Researchers believe it fed on bugs and was constantly on the move. The Australian calls the tiny creature a "hyperactive mini monkey" in its report.
Dr. Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, one of the collaborators on the fossil study, said in a statement, "Archicebus differs radically from any other primate, living or fossil, known to science. It looks like an odd hybrid with the feet of a small monkey, the arms, legs and teeth of a very primitive primate, and a primitive skull bearing surprisingly small eyes. It will force us to rewrite how the anthropoid lineage evolved."