New fossils discovered by scientists reveal monkeys lived in the Arctic 52 million years ago.
They have been found just off the north-west coast of Greenland, and have helped scientists understand what some of the earliest primate-like mammals on Earth were like.
Roughly the size of a modern-day squirrel, the monkeys were identified from fossilised fragments of jaws and teeth.
The remains date back to a period known geologically as the Eocene – a time of intense global warming.
Scientists believe the animals gorged on nuts and seeds as they adapted to the swamps and jungles of prehistoric Canada, and spent half the year in darkness.
This darkness may have triggered the species to evolve more robust teeth and jaws compared with other primate relatives of the time.
One of the authors behind the study, Professor Chris Beard, said this was a challenge for them, saying: ‘That, we think, is probably the biggest physical challenge of the ancient environment for these animals.
‘How do you make it through six months of winter darkness, even if it’s reasonably warm? The teeth and even the jaw muscles of these animals changed compared to their close relatives from midlatitudes.
Lead author Kristen Miller, a graduate student at the University of Kansas, said: ‘No primate relative has ever been found at such extreme latitudes. They’re more usually found around the equator in tropical regions.
‘But they’re still pretty small. Some plesiadapiforms from the midlatitudes of North America are really, really tiny.
‘Of course, none of these species are related to squirrels, but I think that’s the closest critter that we have that helps us visualise what they might have been like. They were most likely very arboreal – so, living in the trees most of the time.
‘It does show how something like a primate or a primate relative that’s specialized to one environment can change based off climate change.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
