The oldest nail in the world

According to the American Journal of Athropology, the world's oldest nail, 55.8 million years ago, belongs to a species of extinct primitive named Teihardina brandti.

It is a lemur mammal that is only about 15cm long and lives on trees. Jonathan Bloch of Florida National Museum of History and co-author of the study, told Discovery News : ' Although we are not sure about the primitive nail function in primates , it is clear. they have evolved in a tree-like context, possibly related to the grasping behaviors of moving between small branches . '.

The upper jaw of the Teihardina brandti (upper) and the skull pattern of Tarsier, a Southeast Asian dwarf monkey - (Photo: Discovery)

According to Mr. Bloch, prehistoric nails are as flat as our nails, but longer and more claw-like. This reflects the evolution of the nail from the clawed ancestors. Our hypothesis is that we can trace the origin of human nails at least from this point on , 'said Blotch. He and his colleagues came to the discovery after studying more than 25 new samples of the Teihardina brandti .

These fossils were collected in the last 7 years in the Bighorn basin in northwest Wyoming. In the life of this primate, in the early stages of the Eocene era , a 200,000-year global warming event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum occurred. Mammals then evolved to become smaller. It may also be the first time of the deer and the horse appeared for the first time.

Deer and horses have hooves, but humans and modern primates have nails on their fingers and legs. We have a lot of primates, and another thing in common is the finger pad. They allow sensitive contact and the ability to capture objects, and many other functions.