India discovers a new fossil ape in Northern India. it is about 13 million years old. The earliest ancestors to have known are gibbons from the present days. The research was done by Christopher C. Gilbert of Hunter College. Besides, he fills in a major void in the ape fossil record. He also provides new important evidence as to when gibbons migrated to Asia from Africa. The findings were published in the article “Ni Ram Middle Musein Aap”. It is from Ramnagar, India and it fills a huge gap in the biological record of the hominoid node. The fossil belongs to a complete low molar and an unknown species. Moreover, in nearly a century this is the biggest new fossil discovery. Let us look into some more details of the search.

India Discovers A New Fossil Ape

Gilbert’s search was absurd. He along with Biren Patel, Rajiv Patnaik, Chris Campesino, and Premjit Singh were climbing the same hill. It is a small hill area. And it it is here that they did discovery of the majority of the jawbone. Gilbert saw something shiny in the dirt when he was pausing for rest. The moment he picks it up he realizes that he found something special. He says,

“We immediately knew it was something special. It was a primate tooth. But it was not similar to the tooth of any other primates previously found in the area. Our initial guess from the shape and size was that it was a gibbon ancestor. However, it seems too good to be true. There were no other primates found during that time. And also there was no gibbon fossil discovery previously done in Ramnagar. So we knew we need to do our homework well to figure out what it actually was”.

The Discovery

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The fossil discovery was done in 2015. And ever since then there were years of analysis, study, and comparisons done for the verification. It also took years to accurately determine its place in the family tree. The tooth went through CT-scan and they also took photographs of it. The examiners make comparative samples of both extinct and living ape teeth. This was in order to determine the differences and similarities in dental anatomy. Alejandra Ortiz, a member of the research team makes a statement about their findings. She says,

“ What we have found undeniably points out to a 13 million-year-old gibbon species. This is a unique discovery. And since we have only one tooth now, w have to be very cautious”.

The data push back the fossil record of gibbons by at least five million years. It is also a much-needed discovery to know the stages of evolutionary history.