Ancient Ape Fossil Links Earliest Man To Thailand

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Ancient ape fossil links earliest man to Thailand

By Janjira Pongrai

The Nation

Published on January 7, 2010

The anthropoidia primates - an order that includes humans like us - might have originated right here in Thailand, the recent discovery of a 35-million-year old Siamese ape fossil has suggested.

Found in a Krabi coal mine, the fossil is even older than one formerly believed to be the ancestor of all primates - aged 32 million years and found in Africa.

Mineral Resources Department's director-general Adisak Thongkhaimuk chose the department's 118th anniversary yesterday to announce the discovery of the fossil's lower right-side jaw with teeth and a complete upper jaw attached to an eye socket. He hailed it as the world's oldest anthropoidia fossil and in the best condition.

Crediting the department's experts, Adisak said the Siamopithecus eocaenus fossil find had been published in the Anatomical Record in November 2009.

A previous jaw piece with inferior condition had been discovered in 1995 and published the following year in the magazine Nature. It described the new species of anthropoidia's ancestor as 7kg gibbon-sized and of the Amphipithecidae family, he said.

In 1996, department geologist Sasithorn Khansupa found more fossil pieces compressed between the mine's coal layers, but they were difficult to excavate without damage. Scanning by a micro CT scan and a 3D computer programme produced a full visual.

Geologist Dr Yaowalak Chaimanee said the finds confirmed the Siamese ape was a highly evolved ancestor of anthropoidia primates, whose face was short with eye sockets placed on the front and close to one another like a gibbon.

She said this ancestor hunted at daytime and lived on hard food. The discovery proved that anthropoidia primates originated and evolved in Asia, Yaowalak said. In Thailand they could be found at Krabi's Neu Khlong Coal Mine only. This contradicted previous theories the anthropoidia primates' ancestors and apes originated in Africa, following the discovery of 32-million-year old fossils there.

The Thai study was a collaboration of the department, France's Poitiers University, French Synchrotron Research Facility, and Switzerland's University of Zurich, with the Provincial Electricity Authority of Thailand's permission to survey the site.

-- The Nation 2010-01-07

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[Latindancer]

What amazes me is that Caucasian people can have offspring with Asian people when they have been genetically separated for so long, and produce such good-looking children !

Does anyone know how long geneticists say we have been separated ? Come to think of it, we may be closer to Thai people than other Asians because of their Indian (Khmer) genes.

[apetley]

Does that mean we're all basically Thai then?

How does that affect a citizenship application?

[Matan]

Thai people have known for years that Thailand is the centre of the world, why wouldn't humans have originated from there?

[Payboy]

Does that mean we're all basically Thai then?

How does that affect a citizenship application?

I dunno, but I dont think that argument is going to work at the entrance to national parks, while claiming returning to our natural habitat.

[Monkeypants]

I believe it,

They haven't learned that much in millions of years

[Payboy]

why wouldn't humans have originated from there?

Let's wait for firm evidence of that - until we find some human fossils in LOS.

[PoorSucker]

I have seen the remains of earliest man many times in Pattaya.

[Latindancer]

Oh ! Sorry..........I didn't notice the "PUB" sign......the place I want must be next door................

[londonthai]

What amazes me is that Caucasian people can have offspring with Asian people when they have been genetically separated for so long, and produce such good-looking children !

Does anyone know how long geneticists say we have been separated ? Come to think of it, we may be closer to Thai people than other Asians because of their Indian (Khmer) genes.

this 32-33mln years fossils are common ancestors to all primates, that is lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes and great apes. With great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans) we share a common ancestor 8-10 mln years ago.

The diferent etnic groups, with distintive differences, developed only within the last 200k years.

[Latindancer]

I shall try to find out how long we have been separate from Asian people, according to geneticists.......

If it's 200K years, that is an awfully long time.

[h90]

I shall try to find out how long we have been separate from Asian people, according to geneticists.......

If it's 200K years, that is an awfully long time.

but there were mixes later...Mongolian went to Europe. Some Germans to India etc etc

[PhilHarries]

Thailand, the hub of the human race.

[bunnaag]

Thailand, the hub of the human race.

you were faster.I wanted to write The hub of all apes.

[ballpoint]

But was it a native Thai ape, or a farang ape on vacation in Krabi, having been deterred from Phuket by a violent swinging vine driver who beat him up after he refused to pay 100 clams for a swing from one tree to another?

[NADTATIDA1]

I went to the dinosaur museum near khon kaen on new years day with some local kids,i thought it was a great place to visit and learn about ancient fossils! i would recommend it to anyone even my friends.

I never knew Thailand had so much history!

[WhingeingMoaners]

Thailand, the hub of the human race.

you were faster.I wanted to write The hub of all apes.

The place attracts various kinds of primates, which of course includes a certain breed e.g. the white ilk who escaped the cold from where they originated and migrated to the LOS. No wonder the two types, the migratory one and the native one, get on like a house on fire!