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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (10572)	10/31/2000 12:17:23 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 65232

Primate May Have New Origin Bones Suggest First Ones were in Asia, not Africa W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 14 — Teeth and bits of jaw from a tiny, squirrel-sized animal that lived 40 million years ago in what is now Myanmar suggest primates originated in Asia, not Africa as was believed. A team of researchers from France and Myanmar say the little animal, which they have named Bahinia pondaungensis, was probably the ancestor of modern apes, monkeys and humans. Jean-Jacques Jaeger of the Universite Montpellier in France and colleagues found the fossils in a layer of red clay, along with a complete lower jaw from a more advanced primate called Amphipithecus. Finding the Earliest Anthropoids Writing in the journal Science, they say their findings may help decide where the earliest anthropoids — the advanced primates that include humans, monkeys and apes — came from. “The Bahinia find is important because it tells us that there was a complex community of primates living in Asia, a tremendous anthropoid radiation much earlier than anyone thought,” Jaeger said in a statement. “We didn’t have that kind of information about Asia before, only Africa. Now we may have to change our whole story about anthropoid origins and evolution.” The fossilized remains of many early anthropoids have been found in Africa, most from a single rich site in Egypt. Many scientists thus believed that Africa, already believed by many scientists to be the cradle of humanity, also gave rise to earlier ancestors. Finds Tilt Theories Eastward But a number of fossils have recently been found in Thailand, China and Myanmar. They are between 49 million and 33 million years old and include some of the most primitive-looking anthropoids ever found. Jaeger’s team found that Bahinia’s teeth strongly resemble the most primitive of all, a creature called Eosimias that was found in China. If Eosimias was indeed an anthropoid, it is so old and primitive that it strongly suggests anthropoids originated in Asia. If it is not, the case is still open on the origins of humanity’s ancestors. “Bahinia is important because it is a much more complete fossil than Eosimias,” Jaeger said. Confirmed Type of Species “With the additional fossil material, we were able to look at more dental characters, and these extra characters in the Bahinia fossil helped us to confirm that Eosimias is definitely an anthropoid.” Bahinia and Eosimias are the most primitive anthropoids ever uncovered, and both have been found in Asia and not in Africa. Jaeger and colleagues said this strongly suggests anthropoids evolved in Asia and migrated to Africa. Primates include some small and primitive animals, including bush babies and lemurs. But Bahinia is small by any standards, weighing only about 14 ounces — the size of the smallest South American monkeys. It would have lived in trees and probably eaten insects, judging from the shape of its teeth.