{"id":951,"date":"2014-07-03T13:45:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T09:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/?p=951"},"modified":"2014-07-05T23:50:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T19:50:31","slug":"press-release-7m-year-old-fossil-monkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/press-release-7m-year-old-fossil-monkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release – 7m year old fossil monkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 million year old fossil monkey discovered in Abu Dhabi –\u00a0<\/strong>Specimen provides important \u2018Out of Africa\u2019monkey dispersal clues<\/strong><\/p>\n

An international team of scientists from Hunter College-City University of New York (CUNY), the Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde – Berlin, Yale University, and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) have announced the discovery of an important 6.5 to 8 million year old fossil monkey specimen from Shuwaihat Island in Abu Dhabi\u2019s Western Region (Al Gharbia).<\/p>\n

And the discovery, announced in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, is providing important clues as to when, and how, Old World monkeys dispersed out of Africa and into Eurasia.<\/p>\n

Old World monkeys are a diverse, and widespread group,which include, African and Asian macaques, baboons, mangabeys, leaf monkeys and langurs. They are the most successful group of living non-human primates and although found throughout Africa and Asia today, their dispersal out of Africa and into Eurasia has never been fully understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the \u2018Out of Africa\u2019events associated with human evolution, we know that Old World monkeys also originated and migrated out of Africa millions of years ago, but until now, it has been unclear as to exactly when, and how,\u201dsays Dr. Chris Gilbert, lead author of the study.\u00a0 \u201cRelative to later events in human evolution, this is sort of like \u2018Out of Africa: the Prequel\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Previously, it was thought that some of the monkeys, particularly macaques, may have dispersed into Eurasia over the Mediterranean Basin or Straits of Gibraltar around 6 million years ago, during the Messinian Crisis when the Mediterranean Sea dried up, allowing animals to cross between North Africa and Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese fossils indicate that, instead, Old World monkey dispersal could have taken place through the Arabian Peninsula even before the Messinian Crisis,\u201d Dr. Gilbert said.<\/p>\n

The fossil find, a very small lower molar, was discovered in 2009.\u00a0 The team determined that the tooth belonged to the earliest known guenon, which are some of the most brightly coloured and distinctive monkeys in modern African forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found it, we were doing back-breaking sieving work searching for remains of tiny fossil rodents,\u201dsaid Dr. Faysal Bibi of Berlin\u2019s Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde, a study co-author and discoverer of the little molar.\u00a0 \u201cWe spent many days over consecutive years sieving through tons of sand at this one site. It paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, the oldest known guenon fossil was approximately 4 million years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur specimen pushes back the first appearance of the group by at least 2.5 million years, and most probably more,\u201dsaid Prof. Andrew Hill of Yale University, another co-author on the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes years of work to make such discoveries and study them,\u201d said TCA Abu Dhabi\u2019s Dr. Mark Beech, a study co-author. \u201cThe discovery of a tree-dwelling guenon monkey in the Abu Dhabi desert really highlights the vast ecological changes that have taken place in the Arabian Peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Historic Environment Department of TCA Abu Dhabi has a strategy to preserve, protect, study and promote the internationally important fossil sites found in Al Gharbia. A team of UAE specialists from the Historic Environment Department has been working closely since 2006 with a team of experts from Yale University and other renowned institutions to coordinate the research, study and publication of these fossils.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe preservation of the Late Miocene fossil sites in Abu Dhabi emirate is of paramount importance,\u201d said Mohammed Amer Al-Neyadi, Head of the Historic Environment Department at TCA Abu Dhabi. \u201cIt\u2019s essential that these sites be protected to further our understanding of the ancient fossil record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team stresses that future work in Abu Dhabi and the Arabian Peninsula is critical to shedding further light on the evolutionary history of monkeys and other mammalian groups.\u00a0 Previous work in the region has also highlighted interesting aspects of elephant evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still know relatively little about ancient life in the Arabian Peninsula,\u201dsaid Dr. Bibi.\u201cA rare find like this is a \u2018first\u2019 for the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Christopher C. Gilbert, Hunter College
\ncgilbert@hunter.cuny.edu
\n<\/a>+1 212 396 6578<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Faysal Bibi, Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde
\nfaysal.bibi@mfn-berlin.de<\/a>
\n+49 30 2093 8546<\/p>\n

Prof. Andrew Hill, Yale University
\nandrew.hill@yale.edu<\/a>
\n+1 203 432 3813<\/p>\n

Dr. Mark Beech, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority\u00a0 mark.beech@tcaabudhabi.ae<\/a>
\n+971 2 657 6221<\/p>\n

\"Press_Release_Vervet1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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A modern guenon, the vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus<\/span>. Photo: Andrea Baden\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"AD_Monkey_PNAS_SUBMISSION_Fig_3
\nImages of the fossil tooth in multiple angles.
\nScale bar = 1mm. \u00a0Photo:\u00a0Erik Lazo-Wasem<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 million year old fossil monkey discovered in Abu Dhabi –\u00a0Specimen provides important \u2018Out of Africa\u2019monkey dispersal clues An international team of scientists from Hunter College-City University of New York (CUNY), the Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde – Berlin, Yale University, and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) have announced the discovery of an … Continue reading Press Release – 7m year old fossil monkey<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1057,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markbeech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}