CUTE OLD GUY

Scientists Find Oldest Primate Fossil

Monkey-like creature dates back 55 million years.

Take a good look at this cute little monkey-like creature: it’s similar to the oldest known primate that ever roamed the earth. Scientists have discovered a 55-million-year-old skeleton that offers the best idea of what our earliest close cousins would have been like at that time. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature reveals that the smallest-known mammals weighed one ounce or less and lived on a diet of insects. The primates were “very frenetic creatures, anxious, highly caffeinated animals running around looking for their next meal,” according to the study author. They may not be our direct ancestors, but it sounds like they had some very human characteristics.