Photograph: Lip Kee Yap
A handful of fossilized jawbones found in a Thai coal mine belong to a new species of ancient tarsier, scientists say. Tarsiers are primates that share a common ancestor with both monkeys and humans. The big-eyed, nocturnal animals are today found mostly in Southeast Asia. The new species, named Tarsius sirindhornae, lived about 13 million years ago. Based on the fossil jaws, the whole animal would have weighed up to 6 ounces (180 grams), making it the largest known tarsier, said study leader Yaowalak Chaimanee, a geologist with Thailand’s Department of Mineral Resources. Chaimanee and her team recently found 18 jawbone fossils from the new species in an old coal mine in Lampang Province. “Each jaw holds one to four tiny teeth. Tarsiers were (and still are) pretty rare, so you can imagine to have 18 jaws is marvelous.” Like modern tarsiers, the extinct species probably would have been a great jumper and would have had the ability to rotate its neck 180 degrees. But the fossils show that at least one trait makes the new species different from its descendants. “We know living tarsiers eat insects or small mammals. They have very sharp teeth,” Chaimanee said. “Our fossils have very rounded teeth. Every tooth has worn. We expect Tarsius sirindhornae ate something different than its modern descendant.”
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