September
13
/ 2017
This tiny ankle bone belonged to one of the earliest members of the primate family tree. The 52-million-year-old fossil suggests that the first primates were expert leapers. Discovered more than 30 years ago by paleontologist Marc Godinot, the fossil is now housed at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. First Primates were built for leaping, fossil ankle suggests These first primates spent most of their time in the trees rather than on the ground, but just how nimble they were as they moved around in the treetops has been a topic of dispute. For years, scientists thought the ancestors of today's humans, monkeys, lemurs and apes were relatively slow and deliberate animals, using their grasping hands and feet to
