Last Likely Ape-Human Ancestor Unearthed

A 13-million-year-old fossil of an ape, discovered in Spain, is from the last probable common ancestor of humans and great apes, Spanish researchers reported this week in the journal Science.

A team of fossil sleuths unearthed an animal with a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans. The ancient ape bridges the gap between earlier, primitive animals and later, modern creatures.

This newest ape species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, adds a new page to ancient human history.

The site near Barcelona that yielded the specimen had only one hominid. The researchers from the Miquel Crusafont Institute of Paleontology in Barcelona said apes, however, were common in the area millions of years ago. The team already has found a tooth elsewhere and expects to find more hominid fossils.

“This is a remarkable find,” said F. Clark Howell, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus. “It indicates a diversity in hominids ... in western Eurasia at a time where we’re beginning to think we had a good handle on how much diversity there was.”

The team pieced together 83 bones and identifiable fragments of bones from an adult male ape.

This ape didn’t swing through trees with the curved fingers of an orangutan. Nor did it knuckle-walk on four limbs with the horizontal posture of a chimp.

The ape’s body design suggests it was an adept and agile climber that kept its trunk upright. To do that, its chest had to be shaped in a certain way and the shoulder blades would have needed to hold to a certain position on the back.