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FRED SPOOR. INSET: ISAIAH NENGO, PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER KIARIE

Dawn of the

Planet of the Apes

❯

A 13 MILLION-YEAR-OLD SKULL from Kenya, described in

August in Nature, hints at what a common ancestor of all

living apes (including humans) looked like. The fossil, from

an infant, is the lineage’s most complete skull between 7 million

and 17 million years old. The animal had a short snout, similar to

that of a gibbon but unlike other apes. Anthropologist and lead

author Isaiah Nengo says the fossil offers the best glimpse yet of

our distant ancestor: “We now have a face.”  MARK BARNA

The palm-sized infant skull is a

link to our distant primate past.