9.5-Million-Year-Old Skeleton Yields Clues on Ape Evolution : SCIENCE FILE / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment
From Times staff and wire reports
A 9.5-million-year-old, near-complete skeleton found in Spain belongs to a creature related to the modern orangutan and helps plug a gap in the knowledge of ape development, according to Spanish researchers. The team found part of a skull of Dryopithecus laietanus at the Can Llobateres site near Sabadell in northeast Spain several years ago, and have now found other bones there.
The new skeleton suggests clear adaptations to the kind of upright movement made by orangutans today, the authors said in the Jan. 11 issue of Nature.
