The tiny new species of great ape unearthed at a fossil site in Bavaria may have weighed just 10kg, say scientists <\/p>
The bonobo<\/a> is the world\u2019s smallest living great ape<\/a>. Now scientists in Germany think they may have discovered the smallest great ape to ever live.<\/p> The remains of the new ape species, which were dug up at Hammerschmiede clay pit in Bavaria, include the partial remnants of two teeth and one patella.<\/p> The follow-up study, led by\u00a0German palaeontologist\u00a0Madelaine B\u00f6hme and published<\/a> in the journal\u00a0PLOS ONE<\/em>, suggests\u00a0that the size and shape of these remains are distinct from all other apes, including Danuvius guggenmosi<\/em>, <\/em>a larger\u00a0extinct species of great ape that lived in the same area 11.6 million\u00a0years ago.<\/p> The authors have named the new species\u00a0Buronius manfredschmidi<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p> From the size of the fossils, the authors estimate that Buronius<\/em> weighed around 10kg \u2013 roughly the same as a French bulldog \u2013 making\u00a0the new species\u00a0the “smallest known hominid taxon” (great ape).<\/p> Based on the structure of the teeth and patella, B\u00f6hme says that\u00a0the new species\u00a0was an adept climber and had a diet comprising soft foods \u201cthat may have also included a significant fibrous component\u201d, such as leaves.<\/p> These features suggest that\u00a0Buronius<\/em>\u00a0had a distinct lifestyle from\u00a0Danuvius<\/em>, which had a diet of tougher foods.<\/p> It’s likely that these differences in food choices allowed the two species to share a habitat without competing for resources, in the same way modern gibbons<\/a> and orangutans<\/a> share habitats in Borneo and Sumatra,” B\u00f6hme explains.<\/p> This is the first known example of a European Miocene fossil site with multiple ancient ape species.<\/p> The authors suggest that re-examination of other similar sites might uncover more examples of this cohabiting behaviour.<\/p> The study was published<\/a> on 7 June 2024 in the journal\u00a0PLOS ONE<\/em>\u00a0by Madelaine B\u00f6hme of Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen, Germany and David R. Begun, of University of Toronto, Canada and colleagues.<\/p> Main image: the bonobo is the smallest living great ape. Credit: Getty<\/em><\/p> More prehistoric discoveries:<\/strong><\/p> The tiny new species of great ape unearthed at a fossil site in Bavaria may have weighed just 10kg, say scientists <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":39005,"template":"","categories":[1,241],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live.jpg",2474,1704,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-300x207.jpg",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-768x529.jpg",768,529,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-1024x705.jpg",800,551,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-1536x1058.jpg",1536,1058,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/06\/prehistoric-mini-ape-discovered-in-germany-the-smallest-to-ever-live-2048x1411.jpg",2048,1411,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The tiny new species of great ape unearthed at a fossil site in Bavaria may have weighed just 10kg, say scientists","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/39004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What did Buronius<\/em> look like?<\/h2>
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