50 million years ago, Europe was very different then today. Continents have drifted and sea levels changed. The world climate is more humid and tropical.
The primate’s home around the lake was a lush and tropical rainforest.
This is where our fossil lived out her life as a pre-historic primate.
She lived in a dense jungle of tall trees and vines.
As the team continued to examine her skeleton they were able to deduce how she lived:
Looking at her thumb and her hands and legs they could see that these were grasping hands and grasping feet. Evidently these were hands and feet designed for living on the top of the trees, no doubt about that.
Her arm and leg bones are quite strong for such a little animal, indicating that she had quite a lot of muscles.
To understand what she did eat, the team looked at her teeth.
According to the x-ray of her teeth, we know she did eat fruit and leaves and probably supplementing it with insects. The team even found seeds in her gut.
She has an extraordinary large number of teeth.
The team made a 3D CT scan analysis of her teeth and realized that she had her baby teeth as well as her unerupted adult teeth still in her jaw. This primate was a youngster.
She is a young female with an equivalent age of a human somewhere between 6 and 12 years old
The investigating scientist has a daughter, 5 years old who had a similar teeth situation at the time, so he decided to name the fossil Ida, after the name of his own daughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7lXsjivGu0
to be continued………………..
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