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Mother of All Apes May Have Been Surprisingly Small (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: From sturdy chimpanzees to massive gorillas to humans themselves, the living great apes are all large-bodied, weighing between 30 and 180 kilograms. So for years most researchers thought the ancestral ape must have tipped the scales as well. But the partial skeleton of an 11.6-million-year-old primitive ape may force scientists to reimagine the ancestor of all living apes and humans. With a muzzle like a gibbon but a large brain for its body size, the ancient primate has traits that link it to all apes and humans—yet it weighed only 4 kg to 5 kg, according to a report today in Science.

5 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, why not by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was at a zoo in Panama and a tiny little monkey offered me some of his dirty banana. I guess I looked like him. I told him no thanks, though, he could keep it. So he finished it. The point of this story is that we're not that different from a monkey, except most humans wouldn't offer you shit

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    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Sure, why not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      humans have just evolved more subtle yet vastly more evil ways of throwing shit at each other. At least our primitive cousins are open about it.

  2. Err yes by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    From sturdy chimpanzees to massive gorillas to humans themselves, the living great apes are all large-bodied, weighing between 30 and 180 kilograms.

    Err, yes, that's why they're called "great apes," isn't it?

    There are lesser apes as well, which are all gibbons.

    So for years most researchers thought the ancestral ape must have tipped the scales as well.

    I assume there's a bit more to the previous reasoning than that.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  3. makes sense by drewsup · · Score: 2

    Small, light and agile would have been the advantage back then, once the evolutionary niche was carved out and your species started to flourish, then the competetive size differences would start to evolve.

  4. who read that as... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    "Mother of All Apps"

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    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade