Ancient-ape remains discovered in Kenya
By Bruce Bower
Researchers have found fossils from an approximately 9.8 million-year-old ape that lived in eastern Africa. The creature belonged to a new genus, dubbed Nakalipithecus nakayamai, that may have evolved into a common ancestor of African apes and humans, proposes a team led by Yutaka Kunimatsu of Kyoto University in Japan.
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Fieldwork in Kenya yielded a partial lower jaw containing three teeth as well as a dozen individual teeth, all attributed to Nakalipithecus. The fossils were dated by measurements of radioactive-argon decay in volcanic-ash layers at the African site.