Scientists say they have found a 20 million-year-old fossil of an ape skull in Uganda.
A team of French and Ugandan paleontologists found the skull at a site called Napak XV, said team leader Martin Pickford, according to the news site The Hindu.
"This is the first time that the complete skull of an ape of this age has been found. ... (I)t is a highly important fossil and it will certainly put Uganda on the map in terms of the scientific world," Pickford said Tuesday in Kampala, according to France's Expatica.com.
The skull belonged to a male Ugandapithecus major, an ancestor of today's great apes.
The expedition was led by Pickford, of the Collège de France in Paris, and professor Brigitte Senut of the Paris-based National Museum of Natural History, reported Uganda's New Vision website.
The discovery will enhance understanding of the development of apes and humans, the scientists said.
wow. ancient animals. who'd of thunk.
Lol!
Do you think my designer could fashion a hat out of that?
@Sheryl:
Yes.
But why would you want to?
Although it *would* be one-of-a-kind...
This is so cool. Nature doesn't really keep skeletons in tact, so to find one like this is really a great find!
Kind of gives pause to the 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' theory...
Coffins sort of go against that theory also.
@coffins:
They surely do.
Its just another tie-in ad for the new Planet of the Apes movie.
No, not "surely"..."sort of". Flesh and bones are made out of dust particles and turn back to dust unless something is preserving them, like coffins. The 'dust to dust theory' turn's out to be the truth after all.
@coffins:
Whatever you say...
It would seem our ape had a very fine coffin, then, to have survived 20 million years...
And apparently you don't have a grasp of sarcasm, either.
CSinSC:
Probably.
That's one movie I won't see...it will kill the campiness of the original...
Very fine coffin indeed. Not fossil fine, but fine nonetheless. "From dust you were made and to dust shall you return" an old man once explained. Hardly anyone believed him though, and even today they make fun of him...some under the guise of 'sarcasm'. Advances in science and technology have shown this old man's words to be true. Turns-out we are made out of dirt after all, yet some still don't really believe it.
We are all made from star stuf. @ YRH, I couldnt make myself watch the last re-make either.
Get your paws off me you damn dirty ape !
Except according to the followers of the old man, the earth wasn't in existence 20 million years ago.
To put a finer point on it, I wasn't using the 'sarcasm' in relation to what you are thinking of.