By Helen Briggs BBC News
21 June 2018
An ape that is new to science has
been discovered buried in an ancient tomb in China.
The gibbon has already become
extinct, suggesting humans wiped out primate populations long before the modern
age.
Living primates are in peril,
with many on the brink of extinction.
The new gibbon, named Junzi
imperialis, may be the first to vanish as a direct result of human actions,
according to scientists led by the Zoological Society of London.
"All of the world's apes -
chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and gibbons - are threatened with extinction
today due to human activities, but no ape species were thought to have become
extinct as a result of hunting or habitat loss," said lead researcher Dr
Samuel Turvey.
"However, the discovery of the
recently extinct Junzi changes this, and highlights the vulnerability
of gibbons in particular."
First emperor
The partial skull of the gibbon
was found in a burial chamber dating from about 2,300 years ago in Shaanxi
Province, central China, alongside the bones of other animals, including lynx,
leopards and a black bear.
The tomb, and perhaps the ape,
may have belonged to Lady Xia, the grandmother of China's first emperor, Qin
Shihuang, who ordered the building of the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta
Warriors.
Gibbons were seen as having noble
characteristics in Chinese culture and were kept as luxury pets.
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