The Mother of All Apes?

Marta Palmero/Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont

Another discovery, another possible rewrite of evolutionary history. A partial skeleton found in northeastern Spain of an 11.6-million-year-old primate, nicknamed Lala, suggests that, far from evolving from huge ape-like creatures, today's African apes may have started out as small primates more along the lines of gibbons. It also shows that these smaller creatures migrated from Africa to Europe. But was Lala the common ancestor of gibbons and apes, or just of gibbons? Scientists do know some things for sure. She was a tree dweller with wrists like those of today's apes, but her ear openings have something in common with those of monkeys. "Enigmatic" was one word used by paleoanthropologist David Begun of the University of Toronto: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/petite-primate-fossil-could-upend-ideas-about-ape-evolution?tgt=nr