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Thumb-sized Primates and Snakes with Legs!

© Debbie St. Germain

A team of researchers led by Northern Illinois University paleontologist Dan Gebo have discovered the fossils of thumb-sized primates that lived 45 million years ago.

The fossils were discovered in the sediment of a limestone quarry in China in 1996. These fossils represent the smallest known primates. One of the species found was estimated to have weighed only 10 grams. This makes the new primates the smallest to have ever lived on this earth.

Some of the fossils are one-third the size of the mouse lemur that lives in Madagascar. This lemur, which weighs about an ounce, was the smallest known primate, until now.

Primates are mammals characterized by having larger brains, hands and feet that can grasp, nails instead of claws and eyes located in the front of the skull. Hundreds of animal fossils have been found in this limestone quarry, which is 100 miles west of Shanghai. Out of these fossils, three minute primate species have been found. The limestone itself comes from the Triassic Age, which was the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 220 million years ago.

The researchers have no complete skeletons, but as many as 50 foot bones belonging to the primates have been found. The markings on the bones have led the researchers to believe that these primates were prey to owls. Owls usually feed on rodents, so, considering the size of this primate, it is easy to believe how they could become the victim of the owl.

The researchers used a statistical technique called regression. In this technique, they compared the bones' size with those of living animals. This gives them a good estimate of the primates' size and weight. The researchers say that these tiny primates were tree-dwellers that relied on a diet of insects, fruit and nectar. Because they had a high metabolism, they had to eat a lot of food in one day. Primates of today are awake during the day and sleep at night; it is likely these tiny primates slept during the day, making them nocturnal animals.

Another discovery in the news was a new species of a fossil snake with legs that was found in a limestone quarry north of Jerusalem. The fossil snake, which lived 95 million years ago, is named Haasiophis terrasanctus after a Hebrew University professor named George Haas who obtained it from quarry workers more than 20 years ago.

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