A research team from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Leiden University in the Netherlands has examined a tooth from the Schöningen archaeological site in Lower Saxony. Publication in Quaternary Environments and Humans.
Baby tooth
In the publication, the researchers show that the specimen is a baby tooth from a young macaque that lived in the Schöningen region more than 300,000 years ago. The tooth therefore represents the northernmost evidence of this primate species in continental Europe.
Barbary macaques are the only extant macaque species native to North Africa, and they are also found in Gibraltar at the southern tip of Europe. All other species of macaque live in Asia. During the Pleistocene, however, the range of these primates extended across large parts of southern and central Europe, as shown by fossil finds from Spain, Italy, and Greece all the way to Germany and England.
Schöningen
'The small tooth we examined was recovered during the 2004 excavation campaign from lakeshore sediments at the Schöningen site in Lower Saxony. This site is world-renowned for its well-preserved Paleolithic archaeological and palaeontological remains and provides sensational insights into the environment and climatic conditions of that time,' reports Jordi Serangeli of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, who heads the excavation in Schöningen.
'The tooth is almost completely preserved and less than one centimeter long,' adds study leader Thijs van Kolfschoten of Leiden University. 'It is the deciduous molar of an approximately one-year-old macaque, a species very closely related to the modern Barbary macaque. Schöningen is located around 1,800 kilometers farther north than the species' current northernmost range. The tooth thus represents one of the northernmost remains of macaques from the Middle Pleistocene and the northernmost find from continental Europe.'
Evolution
The genus Macaca first evolved in the late Miocene, about 16 million years ago, presumably in North Africa. The Barbary macaque then spread throughout the Mediterranean region and farther north to what is now the Netherlands and Germany. 'The species was widespread in Europe over a very long period of time. Several Barbary macaque remains have even been found in England,' explains van Kolfschoten. 'In northern Germany, the animals had likely reached the northern limit of their potential range. The range of Barbary macaques later decreased dramatically until they became completely extinct in Europe during the last Ice Age. The reasons for this included climate change, habitat loss, and likely increasing pressure from another primate species: early humans.'
Endangered
Read the full article in Quaternary Environments and Humans.
