Discoveries in a fossil-based compilation study led to constructing a family tree for primates that considers how these animals evolved and spread out, leading to many kinds. This expansive classification of the order primates includes all known species, whether existing or not.

More Primate Species

It was devised by a group of researchers based in Chicago and Leeds University who are interested in primates, reported Scitech Daily.

Included in the family tree are 900 of these animals that are living extinct; it will help to guide researchers navigate the lineage of monkeys, gorillas, apes, and last humans and gain perspective on how different sub-members of the species their origin and how they spread out over time all over the world.

UChicago geophysical scientist Anna Wisniewski and the study leader said it permits more insight into how this species evolved as a group.

There are two approaches to starting a family tree for apes (or any other species). Start by grouping the fossils you have, which may not be many.

Another way is to check primate DNA from living to the non-existing members to trace how they evolved. No method is perfect and is usually done singly, which is a limited trace of all lineages, cited UChicago News.

Two members of the study from UChicago, Graham Slater and Wisniewski, worked to combine all the pieces of data into a complete panorama.

Data from 116 studies from 40 years ago merged more approaches into a complete tree.It allows them to formulate answers to relevant questions of humans and the closest related animals for insight via the new family tree for primates.

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Evolution of Primates

The fossil record is incomplete, and too may be gaps in how primates evolved and adapted over time. Common knowledge is that these species started about 50 to 80 million years ago.

Over time, primates spread out everywhere they could, evolved lines with specific body types, and lived in various habitats with specific food available. It is still not sure where the first member came from, and still a hot question for primate scientists.

Slater stated how many primates arise and spread; one is developing in North America and moving to Eurasia; next, a new specie can separate from that family in North America or Eurasia.

Either it thrives or dies out by backtracking the lineage, which can be investigated how ancestors developed or became extinct. The study's authors had some issues with the primate evolution and mixed everything up.

Where the ancestor of several modern monkeys came from is not resolved yet; in particular, the haplorhine monkeys are composed of African, South American, and Eurasian monkeys and apes and the tiny, insect-eating tarsiers.

Slater added they are scattered all over the globe, but tree points to the origin in North America. Even with the comprehensive tree, it's hard to reach an answer based on the study.

Lack of fossils is a problem, and molecular data is used instead; also, the movement of the earth's crust in the last 30 million years is a factor to consider. The UChicago team said the tree is not enough, even with two approaches.

The new family tree for primates does help with DNA and fossil approaches, but gaps still exist; the study is not complete in answering the history of primates yet.

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