Paleontologist Jorn Hurum discovered what he believes may be a crucial "missing link" in the evolution of primates. Discovered in 2009 in Germany, this 47-million-year-old specimen contains details such as opposable thumbs and short limbs that suggest it may have had a prominent role in the evolutionary split that went on to create humans. Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University, says "It is one of the most important branching points in the evolutionary tree, but not the only branching point."
The oldest chemical traces of animal life on Earth were recently discovered in ancient rock formations in Oman. Dating back to 635 million years ago, the sponges were discovered evidence of a steroid molecule that is only present in one sponge in the world today. The discovery of this ancient life form is important as it clarifies how ancient life forms evolved into multicellular organisms, a debate of some importance among many scientists today.
An Indohyus, a small, raccoon-sized herbivore that lived approximately 48 million years ago, was recently discovered in Kashmir. A team led by Hans Thewissen, a professor of anatomy at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine, have studied this specimen in an effort to check the long held belief that whales are the descendants of meat-eating mammals that took to the oceans in an effort to feed on fish. This has cast new information on whale predecessors as plant-eating aquatic animals dating much farther back than previously thought.
A long-running dispute over whether bats flew before they used echolocation was settled with the recent discovery of fossils in Wyoming. The earliest known bat lived approximately 52 million years ago says Nancy Simmons, a researcher on the project. Analysis shows that the fossil skeleton lacks bony structures known to aid in the use of echolocation. More studies and ongoing research aim to figure out whether the ancient bat was nocturnal, which may aid in determining how loss of sight and the subsequent echolocation evolved.