Scientists and other researchers have examined some ancient fossils which were identified as the remains of a rather small monkey which is extinct.
These remains were found and brought back to the surface by divers from an underwater cave in the Dominican Republic.
The researchers who examined the fossils have come to the conclusion that the remains are somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 years old, but are saying that the species of monkey which these remains came from, could be much much older.
This sheds some light about the origin of primates in the region.
It may also suggest that many more ecologically valuable treasures could be unearthed beneath the sea, by the rather unusual field of study known as “underwater paleontology”
A researcher from the Brooklyn College in New York, Dr. Alfred Rosenburger, was in charge of the examination process of the tiny monkey’s bones, the results of this process were then published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.
Dr. Rosenburger has explained that the fossils which were incovered, including an almost complete skull, were discovered by a crack team of scuba divers who were spelunking in the underwater cave in the area.
“It’s miraculous that they even saw it,” he said, “When they discovered it, they were fearful the bones were exposed, so they moved the material to a little nook to protect it.”
Upon learning of he discovery Dr. Rosenburger went about getting official permission to take the fossil out of the cave, and then returned with the scuba divers October of last year to pick them up.
The bones were packed into tupperware containers, and then brought to the surface by the divers.