Scientists have unearthed remains of a primate that could have
been ancestral not only to humans but to all great apes,
including chimps and gorillas. By Paul Rincon BBC News science
reporter The partial skeleton of this 13-million-year-old
"missing link" was found by palaeontologists working at a dig
site near Barcelona in Spain. Details of the sensational
discovery appear in Science magazine. The new specimen was
probably male, a fruit-eater and was slightly smaller than a
chimpanzee, researchers say. Palaeontologists were just getting
started at the dig when a bulldozer churned up a tooth. Further
investigation yielded one of the most complete ape skeletons
known from the Miocene Epoch (about 22 to 5.5 million years
ago). Salvador Moyą-Solą of the Miquel Crusafont Institute of
Palaeontology in Barcelona and colleagues subsequently found
parts of the skull, ribcage, spine, hands and feet, along with
other bones. They have assigned it to an entirely new genus and
species: Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. Great