Danuvius (genus)

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Danuvius
Danuvius guggenmosi "Udo", life-size reconstruction made of plaster of paris and clay with incorporated replicas of the preserved long bones and jaw fragments

Danuvius guggenmosi "Udo", life-size reconstruction made of plaster of paris and clay with incorporated replicas of the preserved long bones and jaw fragments

Temporal occurrence
Miocene
11.62 million years
Locations
Systematics
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Human (Hominoidea)
Apes (Hominidae)
Danuvius
Scientific name
Danuvius
Böhme et al., 2019
species
  • Danuvius guggenmosi
The clay pit "Hammerschmiede" fossil site near Pforzen in January 2015

Danuvius is an extinct genus of primates from the family of great apes , which during the late Miocene in Europe occurred. In the district of Ostallgäu in Bavaria discovered fossils that have been made to this genus, which in 2019 published come first description of the genus and type species , according from sediment layers , whose age using the Magnetostratigraphy was dated 11.62 million years. The only species of the genus so far is Danuvius guggenmosi . In particular, due to features in the joints of a fossil preserved tibia was argued in the first description, the individuals of the species had already walked upright .

The Danuvius fossils were recovered under the direction of Madelaine Böhme from the clay pit "Hammerschmiede" (47 ° 55 ′ 38.5 ″ N, 10 ° 35.5 ″ E) in the municipality of Pforzen in the Bavarian district of Ostallgäu .

Naming

The name of the genus is derived from the Celtic-Roman river god Danuvius and refers to the site in the catchment area of ​​the Danube . The epithet of the only scientifically described species to date , Danuvius guggenmosi , honors the discoverer of the “Hammerschmiede” site, the Allgäu amateur archaeologist Sigulf Guggenmos (1941-2018), who spent several decades as an autodidact in the field of prehistory took care of the archaeological sites in the Allgäu.

As a nickname for their find, Madelaine Böhme and a doctoral student chose the name “Udo” on May 17, 2016, when the program received on the car radio celebrated the 70th birthday of Udo Lindenberg .

Initial description

The holotype of the genus and at the same time the type species Danuvius guggenmosi is the partially preserved skeleton of a male individual (archive no.GPIT / MA / 10000), from which 21 elements were recovered:

  • the fragment of a left lower jaw with two preserved molars (M1 and M2);
  • the fragment of a left upper jaw with four preserved premolars and molars (P3 to M2);
  • five lower jaw teeth found in isolation: left incisor I1, left P3, right P3, M2 and M3;
  • a mandibular tooth found in isolation (P3);
  • two vertebrae from the area of ​​the rib cage ;
  • the fragment of a left humerus and
  • an almost completely preserved right ulna ;
  • the fragments of a left metacarpal and several finger bones;
  • the head of a right femur ,
  • a right kneecap as well
  • an almost completely preserved left shin .

The long bones (ulna, shin, femur) were broken into several parts.

In the first description, the fossil finds of two smaller adults and one young individual were also named as paratypes . a. several teeth, another femur and the head of a femur.

All finds from the “Hammerschmiede” clay pit are kept in the paleontological collection of the University of Tübingen (GPIT).

features

Based on the length, strength and shape of the bones and comparisons with primates living today, the fossils in the first description were assigned to the early great apes and a range of 17 to 31 kilograms was reconstructed for the body weight during the lifetime of the adult animals; this is comparable to a large Siamang and a small bonobo . The preserved teeth are similar to those of individuals of the genus Dryopithecus , which is why Danuvius was referred to in the first description as a "well-preserved dryopithecine ape ".

Danuvius had a broad chest, and the features of the two preserved thoracic vertebrae were interpreted to mean that the spine - similar to that of anatomically modern humans - could have been curved in an S-shape. The researchers also described as surprising that "some bones resembled humans more than the great apes": According to the authors of the first description, the elongated hips and the alignment of the articular surfaces of the preserved leg bones in the knee area indicate an upright walking biped, its long Arms, however , resembled a bonobo moving suspensively. The combination of these characteristics was therefore interpreted as a potential intermediate stage between tree and primarily ground-dwelling great apes. That is, Danuvius could be an example of the intermediate steps through which the upright walk developed in the early ancestors of Homo sapiens : “The upright walk could have been invented in the branches long before our ancestors habitually took solid ground under their feet. “Other authors argued in the same way in 2007 after observing orangutans.

The unique combination of the characteristics of arms and feet in Danuvius , which due to the lack of well-preserved long-bone joint heads in other European, similarly old dryopithecine great apes such as Oreopithecus , Pierolapithecus , Hispanopithecus and Rudapithecus, has not yet been proven, was in the first description of Danuvius as a qualification for " extended limb clambering "(for example: climbing with extended limbs) and described as a mode of locomotion that was previously unproven fossil records. Features of this term, newly introduced into paleoanthropology, are, in addition to the proportions of the front and rear limbs, in particular the "unique combination of knee, ankle, elbow and wrist", as well as the strong, easy-to-grasp big toe, the slightly curved finger bones - a consequence of this frequent climbing in the branches of trees - and the ability to walk through the sole .

Tribal classification

The exact phylogenetic classification of the genus Danuvius within the internal system of the great apes is unclear. Although the genus was described in the first description as a “well-preserved dryopithecine ape”, the genus was not actually assigned to the Dryopithecini tribe in the diagnosis . The previously published age of the fossils, 11.6 million years, falls into the era in which the lines of development of the Asian orangutans separated from those of the homininae ( gorillas , chimpanzees and humans). When exactly the last common ancestors of both lines of development lived has so far only been narrowed down using the molecular clock , so that in his first description it was left open whether Danuvius should be classified before or after the separation of the two lines of development. In the New Scientist it was also noted that the posture could not be reliably reconstructed due to missing bones in the hip area.

Further finds from the "Hammerschmiede" clay pit

In the years 2011 to 2018, the paleontologists around Madelaine Böhme, u. a. As part of student excavation internships, around 15,000 fossils of 115 different species from the “Hammerschmiede” clay pit, including remains of rhinos and elephants, fish and birds, bats and flying squirrels, pigs and deer, giant salamanders, saber-toothed cats and several species of turtles. The site has been explored since the 1970s.

literature

  • Madelaine Böhme , Nikolai Spassov, Jochen Fuss, Adrian Tröscher, Andrew S. Deane, Jérôme Prieto, Uwe Kirscher, Thomas Lechner, David R. Begun: A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans. In: Nature . Volume 575, 2019, pp. 489-493, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1731-0 .
  • Tracy L. Kivell: Fossil ape hints at how walking on two feet evolved. In: Nature. Online advance publication of November 6, 2019, doi: 10.1038 / d41586-019-03347-0 , full text (PDF) .
  • Madelaine Böhme: Danuvius guggenmosi. In: Senckenberg. Nature • Research • Museum. Volume 150, No. 1-3, 2020, pp. 6-11.

Web links

Commons : Danuvius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Madelaine Böhme et al .: A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans. In: Nature . Volume 575, 2019, pp. 489-493, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1731-0 .
  2. ↑ Birgit Gehlen, Armin Guggenmos, Werner Zanier: A life for archeology in the Allgäu. On the death of Sigulf Guggenmos, who discovered important sites of the Stone Age between Kaufbeuren and Füssen. In: Bavarian Archeology. No. 1, 2019, pp. 52–56, full text (PDF) .
  3. ^ Society for Archeology in Bavaria eV: Bavarian Archeology Prize (2004) for Sigulf Guggenmos.
  4. ↑ a b Urs Willmann: Udo, the early bird. In: The time. No. 46 of November 7, 2019, pp. 39-40 ( online version ).
  5. ↑ New human ancestor discovered in Europe. On: idw-online.de from November 6, 2019.
  6. ↑ Ancient ape offers clues to evolution of two-legged walking. On: nature.com from November 6, 2019.
  7. ↑ SKS Thorpe et al .: Origin of Human Bipedalism As an Adaptation for Locomotion on Flexible Branches. In: Science. Volume 316, 2007, pp. 1328-1331, doi: 10.1126 / science.1140799 ; cf. on this: upright on the branch. On: sueddeutsche.de from May 17, 2010.
  8. ↑ Apes may have started to walk on two legs millions of years earlier than thought. On: sciencemag.org of November 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ New Ape May Be Human-Gorilla Ancestor. ( Memento of February 27, 2010 on the Internet Archive ) Originally published on National Geographic News on November 13, 2007.
  10. ↑ Did apes first walk upright on two legs in Europe, not Africa? On: newscientist.com from November 6, 2019.
  11. ↑ Student excavations at the University of Tübingen. On: uni-tuebingen.de , last viewed on November 26, 2019.
  12. ↑ Bones of great apes in the Pforzen clay pit: What archaeologists have found in them earlier. On: all-in.de from November 7, 2019.
  13. ↑ Helmut Mayr, Volker Fahlbusch: A Unterpliocene small mammal fauna from the Upper Freshwater Molasse of Bavaria. In: Communications from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Historical Geology. Volume 15, 1975, pp. 91-111, full text (PDF) .

Coordinates: 47 ° 55 ′ 37.6 "  N , 10 ° 35 ′ 30.5"  E