In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans.

Anthropologists have long believed that humans evolved from ancient ape-like ancestors. Some 50 million years ago, two ape-like groups walked the Earth. One is known as the tarsidae, a precursor of the tarsier, a tiny, large-eyed creature that lives in Asia. Another group is known as the adapidae, a precursor of today’s lemurs in Madagascar.

Based on previously limited fossil evidence, one big debate had been whether the tarsidae or adapidae group gave rise to monkeys, apes and humans. The latest discovery bolsters the less common position that our ancient ape-like ancestor was an adapid, the believed precursor of lemurs.

Philip Gingerich, president-elect of the Paleontological Society in the U.S., has co-written a paper that will detail next week the latest fossil discovery in Public Library of Science, a peer-reviewed, online journal.“This discovery brings a forgotten group into focus as a possible ancestor of higher primates,” Mr. Gingerich, a professor of paleontology at the University of Michigan, said in an interview.

The discovery has little bearing on a separate paleontological debate centering on the identity of a common ancestor of chimps and humans, which could have lived about six million years ago and still hasn’t been found. That gap in the evolution story is colloquially referred to as the “missing link” controversy. In reality, though, all gaps in the fossil record are technically “missing links” until filled in, and many scientists say the term is meaningless.

Nonetheless, the latest fossil find is likely to ignite further the debate between evolutionists who draw conclusions based on a limited fossil record, and creationists who don’t believe that humans, monkeys and apes evolved from a common ancestor.

Scientists won’t necessarily agree about the details either. “Lemur advocates will be delighted, but tarsier advocates will be underwhelmed” by the new evidence, says Tim White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “The debate will persist.”

The skeleton will be unveiled at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History next Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and an international team involved in the discovery.

According to Prof. Gingerich, the fossilized remains are of a young female adapid. The skeleton was unearthed by collectors about two years ago and has been kept tightly under wraps since then, in an unusual feat of scientific secrecy.

Prof. Gingerich said he had twice examined the adapid skeleton, which was “a complete, spectacular fossil.” The completeness of the preserved skeleton is crucial, because most previously found fossils of ancient primates were small finds, such as teeth and jawbones.

It was found in the Messel Shale Pit, a disused quarry near Frankfurt, Germany. The pit has long been a World Heritage Site and is the source of a number of well-preserved fossils from the middle Eocene epoch, some 50 million years ago.

Prof. Gingerich said several scientists, including Jorn Hurum of Norway’s National History Museum, had inspected the fossil with computer tomography scanning, a sophisticated X-ray technique that can provide detailed, cross-sectional views. Dr. Hurum declined to comment.

Although the creature looks like a lemur, there are some distinctive physical differences. Lemurs have a tooth comb (a tooth modified to help groom fur); a grooming claw; and a wet nose. Dr. Gingerich said that the adapid skeleton has neither a grooming claw nor a tooth comb. “We can’t say whether it had a wet nose or not,” he noted.

Since the fossilized creature found in Germany didn’t have features like a tooth comb or grooming claw, it could be argued that it gave rise to monkeys, apes and humans, which don’t have these features either.

Source: wsj.com

Only one oil spill can cause enormous devastation on wildlife and habitats, but seas all over the world take in millions of gallons of oil every year. The long-term effect of such a disaster is the subject of much debate among scientists. Some argue that animals and birds are harmed many years after the event, while other people believe wildlife is more resilient. For example, according to research, otters and other animals are still suffering nearly 12 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, which is considered one of the worst in terms of damage to the environment.

Oil affects wildlife by coating their bodies with a thick layer, more and more over time and adheres to their skin or fur even more. Floating over the water surface, birds and marine mammals are caught, some fish even being attracted by the spill because it looks like food.

Every year at least half a million water birds die from encounters with spilt oil, according to Jay Holcomb, executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, California. For a bird to survive such a spill, rescuers must arrive quickly, with water and food. The animals are placed in plastic tubs, being washed with warm water and mild soap. For the eyes and ears, a water pick or toothbrush is used to avoid damaging sensitive organs.

The birds are literally shampooed. After this they are left to bathe to put their feathers in order. They secrete and rub on their feathers natural oil that acts as a conditioner. When the birds regain a natural weight and blood values, they are released back into the wild. Human efforts are considerable, preventing the death of tens of animals. For example, in June 2000, when 1,300 tons of oil was spilled in the Atlantic Ocean, 90 percent of the rescued birds survived. Today the African penguin population is 19% more numerous due to the human efforts, according to University of Cape Town researchers who monitor the birds.