Old world monkey had tiny, complex brain

The brain of a 15 million year old monkey has been visualized for the first time by a team led by Professor Fred Spoor (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology). The 3D computer model shows that the brain is much smaller and has more folds than expected, supporting the idea that brain complexity can evolve before brain size in the primate family tree. The ancient 'Old World' monkey is known scientifically as Victoriapithecus and first made headlines in 1997 when its fossilised skull was discovered on an island in Kenya's Lake Victoria, where it lived 15 million years ago. As fossils from this era are rare, the skull was one of the only clues to the early brain evolution of Old World monkeys. Before it was studied, scientists didn't know if primate brains got bigger first and then more complex, or vice versa. The findings Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and New Mexico State University, offer new clues for how primate brains changed over time. "In the part of the primate family tree that includes apes and humans, the thinking is that brains got bigger and then they get more folded and complex," co-author Lauren Gonzales (Duke University) said.