New Scientist Space Technology Environment ... Full Access BACK ISSUES PRINT EDITION Subscribe Archive ... SUBSCRIPTIONS CENTRE Get 4 extra free issues and unlimited free access to NewScientist.com SUBSCRIBE RENEW GIFT SUBSCRIPTION MY ACCOUNT ... CUSTOMER SERVICE Science : Toothy sparkler unearthed in diamond mine - 30 November 1996 From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. Lesley Cowling
Tools A SOUTH African diamond mine has thrown up unexpected riches: the fossil of an early ape tooth some 18 million years old. The discovery, announced in Johannesburg this month, raises new questions about where the African ape family that gave rise to humans evolved. The tooth came to light when the manager of the mine, in the southwestern desert area known as Namaqualand, met two palaeontologists who were working in the area, Brigitte Senut of France's National Museum of Natural History, and Martin Pickford, from the Collège de France in Paris. Senut and Pickford are members of a cooperative research project between France and South Africa. The researchers say the tooth belongs to Kenyapithecus , an early ape previously found only in East Africa. With it were the fossil teeth of prehistoric pigs and a carnivore known as a bear-dogspecies whose traces palaeontologists have uncovered alongside those of | |
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