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Analysis of fossilised teeth from Ellesmere Island, Canada, reveals that extinct relatives of monkeys and apes reached the Arctic during a play erstwhile the clime was hotter
Life 25 January 2023By Carissa Wong
Artist’s reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae Kristen Miller, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas
Tree-dwelling relatives of primates lived successful swampy forests successful the Arctic 52 cardinal years agone erstwhile the clime was astir 13°C warmer than today.
“These creatures are the archetypal and lone primate relatives known to marque it to the Arctic,” says Kristen Miller astatine the University of Kansas.
Primates, which see monkeys and apes, are descended from squirrel-like mammals that survived the wide extinction that killed astir dinosaurs 66 cardinal years ago.
Miller and her colleagues took pictures of astir 40 teeth and jaw fossils that had been antecedently collected from Ellesmere Island, Canada, which sits wrong the Arctic circle. Previous studies had dated the fossils to 52 cardinal years ago, but didn’t place what taxon they were from.
By utilizing a statistical investigation to comparison the size and curvature of the fossilised teeth with those of extinct and surviving primate relatives, the squad discovered 2 caller taxon of primate relatives, which they named Ignacius mckennai and Ignacius dawsonae aft the palaeontologists who archetypal collected them.
“Mammals person a precise analyzable bony anatomy, which means we tin usage teeth similar fingerprints astatine a transgression country to archer 1 taxon from another,” says Chris Beard, besides astatine the University of Kansas.
Other taxon successful the genus Ignacius person been recovered elsewhere successful North America, but their nonstop relationship with modern primates is taxable to debate.
The team’s investigation suggests the Arctic-dwelling taxon astir apt evolved from a chipmunk-like ancestor that migrated northwards from mid-latitude regions of North America arsenic the clime warmed. Compared with their communal ancestor, I. dawsonae would person been doubly arsenic ample and I. mckennai four times arsenic big, says Beard.
The bony investigation besides revealed that the creatures astir apt evolved to devour a fare of hard nuts and histrion bark to header with a deficiency of softer fruits – presumed to beryllium their preferred nutrient – during the six months erstwhile sunlight is lacking truthful acold north.
The findings supply insights into however animals whitethorn header with planetary warming. “A fewer kinds of animals are apt to determination northwards into the Arctic, but galore others volition not beryllium capable to – successful the aforesaid mode our Ignacius taxon made it but galore different primates surviving astatine little latitudes didn’t,” says Beard. Other animals surviving connected Ellesmere Island astatine the clip included crocodiles and tapirs, says Miller.
“This is important for broadening our position connected primate biology and geographic ranges successful the past,” says Kenneth Rose astatine Johns Hopkins University successful Maryland. “The diagnoses of the 2 caller taxon are due and scientifically sound. The dietary inferences are reasonable.”
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