An ancient primate's partial skeleton, discovered in Spain, is poised to downsize ape evolution in a big way. This 11.6-million-year-old fossil find, nicknamed Laia, represents the first evidence that present-day apes descended from a relatively small, somewhat gibbonlike common ancestor -not large-bodied primates as previously thought, scientists report in the Oct. 30 Science. If that scenario holds up, Laia's discovery also shows for the first time that ancient, small-bodied apes moved from Africa to Europe, says a team led by paleontologist David Alba of the Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona. Based on an analysis of more than 300 teeth, skull and lower-body measurements, Alba and colleagues assign the fossil to a new ape genus and species, Pliobates cataloniae.
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