* Astronomy

Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology (ICP-UAB), directed by professor Salvador Moyà-Solà, published this week in the prestigious US scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the results of their research regarding the findings of a new genus of hominoid primate at Els Hostalets de Pierola, in the Anoia region. This fossil remain displays very interesting particularities, such as an extraordinarily flat face, and further combines primitive with derived traits, characteristic of great apes. This discovery is an enormous step forward in the understanding of the origin of our own family, the Hominidae. It demonstrates that kenyapithecines are the sister taxon of extant hominids and shows that the Mediterranean region was the source area of our family.

The study based on this Middle Miocene genus (11.9 Ma, or million years before present) is reported in a publication by Moyà-Solà and co-authors in the next issue of the renowned US scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The team of researchers involved in this publication, coordinated by Salvador Moyà-Solà, director of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology (ICP), sponsored by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Catalan Government, included: David M. Alba, ICP collaborator; Sergio Almécija, predoctoral researcher at ICP; Isaac Casanovas, postdoctoral researcher at ICP; Meike Köhler, researcher and head of a research group at ICP; Soledad De Esteban, postdoctoral researcher at ICP; Josep M. Robles, ICP collaborator; Jordi Galindo, ICP curator; and Josep Fortuny, predoctoral researcher at ICP.
The new hominid has been given the scientific name of Anoiapithecus brevirostris, in reference to the region where the town of Els Hostalets is situated (l'Anoia) and also to the fact that the new taxon has a very modern facial morphology, characterised by a very reduced facial prognathism, i.e. a very short face. Colloquially we have named it Lluc since it is a male individual. This name stems from the fact that Lluc in Latin means "the one who illuminates", and certainly, the information provided by this new fossil is so important that it permits to solve some key questions on the origin of the Hominidae family.

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