URI anthropologist studies Kenya’s early ape environment

NORTH KINGSTOWN – A University of Rhode Island anthropologist and an international team of scientists have discovered definitive evidence of the environment inhabited by the early ape Proconsul on Rusinga Island, Kenya.
The findings provide new insights into understanding and interpreting the connection between habitat preferences and the early diversification of the ape-human lineage.
Their research, published Feb. 18 in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrates that Proconsul and its primate relative, Dendropithecus, inhabited “a widespread, dense, multistoried, closed canopy” forest.
Holly Dunsworth, URI assistant professor of anthropology, says the research team found fossils of a single individual of Proconsul, which lived 18-20 million years ago, among geological deposits that also contained tree-stump casts, calcified roots and fossil leaves. The discovery underscores the importance of forested environments in the evolution of early apes.
Research on Rusinga Island has been ongoing for more than 80 years and has resulted in the collection of thousands of mammal fossils, including many well-preserved specimens of Proconsul and other primates. Dunsworth’s work at the site is ongoing. •

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