ABSTRACT
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
ABSTRACT
Aqueous solutions containing the nanoscale uranyl peroxide cage clusters U60, [(UO2)(O2)(OH)]6060-, and U60Ox30, [{(UO2)(O2)}60(C2O4)30]60-, were monitored by in situ Raman spectroscopy during stepwise heating to 180 °C. In solutions containing U60, clusters persist to 120 °C, although conversion of U60 to U24, [(UO2)(O2)(OH)]2424-, occurs above 100 °C. U60Ox30 persisted in solutions heated to 150 °C, although partial conversion to smaller uranyl peroxide clusters species was observed beginning at 100 °C. Upon breakdown of the uranyl peroxide cage clusters, uranium precipitated as a compreignacite-like phase, K2[(UO2)3O2(OH)3]2(H2O)7, and metaschoepite, [(UO2)8O2(OH)12](H2O)10. The role of the countercations, oxalate bridge, and solution pH are examined in order to better understand the mobility of these species at elevated temperatures.
ABSTRACT
The evolutionary history of extant hominoids (humans and apes) remains poorly understood. The African fossil record during the crucial time period, the Miocene epoch, largely comprises isolated jaws and teeth, and little is known about ape cranial evolution. Here we report on the, to our knowledge, most complete fossil ape cranium yet described, recovered from the 13 million-year-old Middle Miocene site of Napudet, Kenya. The infant specimen, KNM-NP 59050, is assigned to a new species of Nyanzapithecus on the basis of its unerupted permanent teeth, visualized by synchrotron imaging. Its ear canal has a fully ossified tubular ectotympanic, a derived feature linking the species with crown catarrhines. Although it resembles some hylobatids in aspects of its morphology and dental development, it possesses no definitive hylobatid synapomorphies. The combined evidence suggests that nyanzapithecines were stem hominoids close to the origin of extant apes, and that hylobatid-like facial features evolved multiple times during catarrhine evolution.
