National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: "Human"-Faced Missing Link Found in Spain?


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With a face scientists call "surprisingly human"—and an artist-supplied enigmatic smile—this missing link Mona Lisa may represent the last common ancestor of humans and great apes.

Discovered in Spain, the Anoiapithecus brevirostris ape species shares traits of both primitive apes and early human ancestors—and hints that the human-great ape lineage began in Europe, not Africa, according to a June 2009 study.

Illustration courtesy Marta Palmero, copyright ICP