UC Berkeley paleontologists have identified distinctive features of primate teeth that allow them to track the evolution of our ape and monkey ancestors, shedding light on a mysterious increase in monkey species that occurred during a period of climate change 8 million years ago.
“This shows that we can use the power of evolutionary history to unlock what is going on genetically in animals on whom you can’t experiment, such as humans,“ said study leader Leslea Hlusko, a UC Berkeley associate professor of integrative biology.