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A rare fossil skull, dating from the size of a palm, dating back 20 million years and coming from an extinct monkey discovered in the Andes Mountains, helps researchers to learn about the Evolution of the human brain.
The fossilized skull is the only known specimen of Chilecebus carrascoensis, an extinct New World monkey, who lived in what is now Chile and had a body mass of about one pound.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, led by researchers from the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California at Santa Barbara, suggests that the brain "was enlarged repeatedly and independently during the course of anthropoid history and was more complex in some early members [of anthropoid primates] than previously recognized. "
"Brains are unusually broad, but we do not really know how much this trait began to develop," said lead author Xijun Ni, a research associate at the museum and a researcher at the museum. Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"This is due in part to the scarcity of well-preserved fossil skulls belonging to much older relatives."
John Flynn, curator Frick of the Mammal Fossil Museum, described Chilecebus as "one of those rare and truly spectacular fossils, revealing new ideas and surprising conclusions every time new analytical methods are applied to study it." ".
The use of the high-resolution scanner and 3D digital reconstruction of the interior of the Chilecebus skull has allowed the research team to better understand the anatomy of their brain.
With post son
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