Ancient 3-Inch Creature Holds Clue to Human Divergence From Apes
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The remains of a 55-million-year-old monkey found in China that could fit in the palm of one’s hand and had man-like feet and face, may offer a new timeline on when humans split from their primate cousins, scientists said.
An analysis of the nearly complete 3-inch (8-centimeter) skeleton concluded it was from the tarsiiforme family of primates, which includes lemurs, and shared characteristics of anthropoids, a group of higher primates that includes humans, according to a report in the journal Nature. The creature lived 10 million years after dinosaurs went extinct, scientists said.