Fossils unearthed in southern Germany have helped researchers identify a previously unknown ‘great ape’ that was well adapted to both walking upright as well as using all four limbs while climbing. The scientists say that the primate, named Danuvius guggenmosi, probably lived during the Miocene period, 11.62 million years ago. It was about 1 metre high (about 3 feet). Males may have weighed about 31 kg and females, about 18 kg—at the low extreme of modern great ape body size. The fossilised remains found between 2015 and 2018 in the Hammerschmiede clay pit in the Allgau region, Bavaria, pertain to four animals—an adult male, two adult females, and a juvenile. The most complete skeleton belonged to a male (with limb bones, vertebra, finger and toe bones).
The study on the fossils was published in the journal Nature.
According to a report in November 2019, scientists at the University of Tubingen and colleagues reconstructed the way Danuvius guggenmosi moved about in its environment. They were able to study several functionally important joints, including the elbow, hip, knee and ankle, in a single fossil skeleton of this age.
The scientists suggest that the spine of Danuvius guggenmosi, with its S-shaped curve, held the body upright when standing on two legs. It combined a hindlimb-dominated bipedality with a forelimb-dominated climbing typical of living apes, with the animal’s build, posture, and the ways in which it moved stated to be unique among primates. In contrast to later hominids, the animal had a powerful, opposable big toe, which enabled it to grasp large and small branches securely, according to Professor Nikolai Spassov, from the Bulgarian Academy of Science. The rib cage was of a broad kind and flat; the lower back was elongated. As a result, the centre of gravity was positioned over the extended hips, knees and flat feet, as in bipeds. The fossil indicates that the primates of the past differed from the gorillas and chimpanzees of today.
The results are supported by a recent study of a hip-bone fund in Hungary which was assigned to an ancient ape named Rudapithecus hungaricus.