Darwinius

 






                                                Darwinius Masilae by Julius Csotonyi

Darwinius was a small pro-simian from the middle Eocene, first discovered in 2009. The fossil showed definite prints of its fur, and that it was a female specimen.  It was at first sensationalized as being the first direct ancestor of humans. This was unlikely to be true, and very misleading. Technically, the creature seems to represent a fossil link between lemur-like primates and monkeys. Such an ancestor might well have resembled darwinus, or even have been a near-relative. Though it is less likely that this one species led directly to humans. The probability of this individual of leading directly to us (as sensationalism often implies) is infintesimally small to say the least. Little wonder so many people misunderstand evolution. Nevertheless, she represents a least a near-cousin of our probable ancestors from this time. 


Art by Brent Anderson, for a comics project he is currently working on for me. We were discussing what prehistoric creatures he could include in a lost world, and we kind of agreed about Darwinius. It's only a rough outline at this point, but it's still obvious what these are. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Madagascar's Extinct Fauna

Image
Extinct animals of Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, and nearby islands. Clockwise from right: Reunion White Dodo, Mauritian Common Dodo, Mauritian broad-billed parrot, Mauritian Blue Pigeon, Magaladaptis (Madagascar Giant Lemur), Reunion Solataire (a dodo cousin), Reunion Parrot, Seycelles Giant Tortoise, Mauritian Red Rail, Madagascar Coua, Reunion Crested Starling, Madagascar Elephant Bird, Madagascar Pygmy Hippo The above painting is from the Time Life Nature Library volume on Africa. All of the animals are now extinct, and only three of them are actually from Madagascar, the rest from nearby islands. These happen to be the most striking and the largest, however: the elephant bird, the pygmy hippo, and the giant lemur Magaladaptis .  The island of Madagascar once harbored a unique megafauna all its own. It was not originally part of Africa, but split off from the Indian subcontinent, which at the time had to have sported a great assortment of pro-simians from before true monkeys evol
Read more

The Vanished Animals of East Africa

Image
UPDATED, with full pages from book. As a child, one of the most engrossing books I ever happened upon was this national geographic book at the South Bend library, called Animals of east Africa, by Louis Leakey, who is famous for digging up remains of our own half-ape ancestors. I was astonished to find a chapter of the book entitled "The Vanished" which was devoted to prehistoric African fauna, other than australopithicines.  There, before me, was a painting of two AFRICAN TIGERS having brought own an eland.  Now as everyone knows these days, an African tiger is a contradiction in terms. When I showed my dad, he was astonished too, and said, "Read it. You might learn something." This painting, and others in this chapter, were by famed palaeoartist Jay Matternes. I recognized his work as being by the same artist I'd encountered in many other prehistoric books, although, back then, I didn't know his name. He was and is, one of my very favorite paleo-artists, a
Read more

On the Matter of Thylacines

Image
 Growing up, I had a profound interest in thylacines. Everyone reading this should know already what they are. They are also known as Tasmanian tigers and Tasmanian wolves, and in decades past were called also hyena-opossums, Tasmanian dingos and Zebra-wolves among others.  The above beautiful painting is from my copy of Rare and Beautiful Animals , a 70s book of then-endangered species, with a few extinct ones like the aurochs and bleubok thrown in (the thylacine was still in the endangered realm). The painting depicts a thylacine with a freshly killed pademelon. It was one of my favorite books, that I got for Christmas in the third grade. I remember asking for it at a mall, and my dad coming back with the book hidden inside his coat! I supposed it had sold out, and it such a surprise to find it under the tree!  It was THIS pic that was my favorite though, and you can still see the mustard stains that got on the page, when I was eating sardine-and-mustard sandwiches, which went so wel
Read more