In the middle of some expansion work that was going on at the Can Mata dump, in Els Hostalets de Pierola (Barcelona), they found the first remains of a fossil primate.
On December 4, 2002, excavation work began. during which up to 83 remains of an adult individual were found which, after months of study, finally allowed the description of a new genus and species: Pierolapithecus catalaunicus.
The research was published in 2004 in the journal Science and had a major international impact. The specimen was christened with a folk name ‘Pow’.
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Pau has established himself as a keystone species for studying the evolution of hominoids, a group of great apes that includes humans and our closest modern relatives, the anthropomorphs (gibbons, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees).
Recently, a research team from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Brooklyn College, and the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP) undertook the task reconstructed a well-preserved but damaged skull of this great ape species that lived about 12 million years ago.
The team performed computed tomography scans to obtain a 3D model that allowed virtual deformation correction, and the results of the work were published in the journal PNAS.
Therefore, 20 years after its discovery and 12 million years after its death, it is possible to see for the first time what the primate looked like.
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Pau is the key to evolution
Ancient restoration of the life appearance of a specimen of Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. The original skull is visible for transparency.
Meike Köhler / © ICP
Pau was an adult male who lived about 12 million years ago, in the middle Miocene, in what is now the Can Mata dump.
In the area of the Vallès-Penedès basin, according to the Catalan Institute of Paleontology, other relevant specimens for the study of hominoid evolution have been found, such as Jordi (Hispanopithecus laietanus) or Lluc (Anoiapithecus brevirostris).
Hominoids experienced the first evolutionary radiation in Africa during the early Miocene (about 16 million years ago), reached the first peak of diversity about 20 million years ago, and by the beginning of the middle Miocene some were migrating into Eurasia.
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Towards the end of the Miocene, the human lineage arose in Africa and gradually spread throughout the world.
Moose Anthropomorphs, on the other hand, became more restricted due to environmental changes, until it reaches its current distribution in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia.
With the new image of Pau, the idea that he was a basal hominid is supported. This means that its morphology and size correspond to the common ancestor of humans and great apes.
Previous findings based on the fossil’s pelvis have fueled the hypothesis that it may have already moved upright and even “climbed vertically”.
After modifications made by technology in the structure of the skull withe reveals that his face was positioned at a higher point than originally thought, and the eye sockets and nostrils were more vertical, characteristics that also agree with those of this last ancestor, as National Geographic points out.
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WITH INFORMATION FROM AGENCY SINC
DIGITAL SCOPE EDITORIAL
TIME
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