(July 3, 2015) The
brain hidden inside the oldest known Old World monkey skull has been visualized
for the first time. The ancient monkey, known as Victoriapithecus, first made
headlines in 1997 when its 15 million-year-old skull was discovered on an
island in Kenya’s Lake Victoria. Now, thanks to high-resolution X-ray imaging,
researchers have peered inside its cranial cavity and created a
three-dimensional computer model of what the animal’s brain likely looked like.
The tiny but remarkably wrinkled brain supports the idea that brain complexity
can evolve before brain size in the primate family tree. Credit – Video
courtesy of Fred Spoor of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology.
The brain hidden inside the oldest known Old World monkey
skull has been visualized for the first time. The creature’s tiny but
remarkably wrinkled brain supports the idea that brain complexity can evolve
before brain size in the primate family tree.
The ancient monkey, known scientifically as
Victoriapithecus, first made headlines in 1997 when its fossilized skull was
discovered on an island in Kenya’s Lake Victoria, where it lived 15 million
years ago.
Now, thanks to high-resolution X-ray imaging, researchers
have peered inside its cranial cavity and created a three-dimensional computer
model of what the animal’s brain likely looked like.