Researchers find evidence primates lived in High Arctic 52M years ago – Nunatsiaq News

Jan 25, 2023

Research based on fossils collected from Ellesmere Island in 1970s

Fossils collected from Ellesmere Island 50 years ago are now providing the first evidence that primates once lived in the High Arctic.

In the 1970s, Mary Dawson, a former curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pa., travelled to Ellesmere Island in search of fossils.

The fossils she found sat in the Carnegie museum’s collection gathering dust until 2019, when a University of Kansas paleontologist suggested one of his students, Kristen Miller, study the fossils as part of her research for her master’s degree.

It took her two years to complete her degree and another year of research and writing but Miller, now a PhD candidate at University of Kansas, is seeing her research published in the PLOS ONE open-access journal Wednesday.

Read More: https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/researchers-find-evidence-primates-lived-in-high-arctic-52m-years-ago/