Wourschaity

🐒 How far north could prehistoric monkeys survive? Around 315,000 years ago, a young macaque lived in what is now northern Germany. Its story survives through a single deciduous—or “milk”—tooth measuring just 7.47 mm. Recovered from the Middle Pleistocene deposits of Schöningen, Germany, the specimen represents the northernmost known Middle Pleistocene macaque record from continental Europe. The animal lived in an open woodland dominated by birch and pine, under climatic conditions in which winters were at least 1°C colder than today. But temperature may have been only part of the challenge. At 52.08° N, short winter days would have reduced the daylight available for feeding, foraging, moving, socialising and resting—potentially placing these macaques close to the limits of their ecological tolerance. 🔬 Sometimes, a fossil smaller than a centimetre can transform our understanding of an entire species’ prehistoric range. Reference: van Kolfschoten, T., Verheijen, I., & Serangeli, J. (2026). The first primate (Macaca cf. sylvanus) from Schöningen (Germany). Quaternary Environments and Humans, 4(3), 100116. doi.org/10.1016/j.qeh.2026.1… #INQUA #QuaternaryScience #Palaeontology #Primates #BarbaryMacaque #Macaca #Pleistocene #Schöningen #Palaeoecology #Palaeoclimate #Fossils #QuaternaryEnvironments #ScienceCommunication #ResearchOutreach