An analysis of fossils found in Ellesmere Island, Canada, suggests that ancient ancestors of monkeys and apes arrived in the Arctic region during a time when it has warmer temperatures, which reflects the patterns of Arctic migration for these primate-like animals.
The research, titled "Basal Primatomorpha colonized Ellesmere Island (Arctic Canada) during the hyperthermal conditions of the early Eocene climatic optimum" published in the journal PLOS ONE, showed that early ancestors of today's primates adapted to living in the high Arctic, albeit with little biodiversity, in the mild temperature of ancient Canada.
Two Sister Species of Early Primates Discovered
Researchers at the University of Kansas have uncovered two sister species of near-primate known as "primatomorphans," which goes back roughly 52 million years as the earliest to have lived north of the Arctic Circle.
Kristen Miller, a doctorate student at the University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, said in a press release that both species - Ignacius mckennai and Ignacius dawsonae - are descendants of a common northern ancestor with the spirit to travel to a place where no primate has ever been before.
The fossils were discovered in layers of silt that could be traced back to the early Eocene Epoch, an age of warmer temperatures that potentially predict how ecosystems would suffer in the coming years owing to human-caused climate change.
Primates are more likely to be founding the equator or tropical regions so finding fossils of primate-like animals in the Arctic is unusual. Through phylogenetic analysis, the team was able to identify that the species from Ellesmere Island are related to the species found in the midlatitudes of North America.
During the Eocene Epoch, the Arctic region was much warmer and these close evolutionary primates may have taken advantage of it as o boreal ecosystem that hosted early Cenozoic vertebrates was also present.
Although it was most likely the same today in which the region is mostly dark for half of the year, the team thinks it might have triggered the two species to evolve more robust teeth and jaws compared to other primates at that time.
Miller and her colleagues studied the fossilized teeth and described their findings in the paper. Since food must be tougher to find during the dim winter months, the arctic primates most likely were forced to consume harder material, which explains the structure of their teeth.
They also found that the Arctic primates were slightly larger than their relatives in the south, a group known as the "plesiadapiforms," which likely lived in the trees most of the time due to their size. But still, the Arctic primates were also believed to be small as well.
Ancient Episodes of Global Warming Might Show What the Future Would Look Like
Many early primate cousins lived in the lower latitudes of North America throughout the Eocene, but just these two species are known from this Arctic community. According to SciTech Daily, the findings add to prior evidence that this environment suffered restricted richness when compared to more southern locations.
As researchers noted, the Arctic migration may have been constrained by variables such as long periods of Arctic darkness although warming temperatures permitted certain creatures to migrate northward. The findings are critical for forecasting how ecosystems will respond to present warming climates.
Historic instances of global warming suggest how future changes in the Arctic may play out as global warming continues to transform the region, researchers added.
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