Monkeys From the North Sea - For the First Time, Macaque Fossils Have Been Discovered at the Bottom of the North Sea

There was a time monkeys lived in the near the North Sea. 
Together with two colleagues from the Netherlands, Senckenberg scientist Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke examined the teeth of several macaques from the bottom of the North Sea. They constitute the first fossil evidence of Old World monkeys from the guenon family (Cercopithecidae) in the North Sea region. The primate teeth were unearthed during the artificial accretion of sand for the “Maasvlakte 2” harbor extension near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The study was recently published in the scientific journal “Revue de Paléobiologie.”

Yielding the remains of woolly rhinoceros, broad-fronted moose, cave lions and straight tusked elephant, the bottom of the North Sea has long been considered one of the most important fossil sites for the reconstruction of life in Europe during the Ice Age. Left upper canine of the fossil macaque species from the bottom of the North Sea. 

Photo: J.W.F. Reumer, Utrecht Universit

 Photo: S. Schneider, Senckenberg Weimar

Modern macaques are adept climbers that prefer rocky landscapes. However, such rock formations did not exist during the Ice Age in the area of the current North Sea. The team of scientists assumes that the roughly 70-centimeter-long animals found refuge in trees instead. It therefore stands to reason that the macaques’ habitat – covered by water and sediments today – must have been at least partially forested.