Meet Your Ancestors

  • By Peter Tyson
  • Posted 07.01.08
  • NOVA scienceNOW

For many of us, it may be hard to imagine that if we went back far enough in time—more than 55 million years, when the first primates are thought to have lived—that our great-a-million-times-over-grandparent was the size of a mouse. But it's true. Want to meet that very distant relative of yours? Click on the image below—and take a trip back through your primate lineage.

Launch Interactive Printable Version

Take a look at your primate kin over the past 55 million years.

Peter Tyson is editor in chief of NOVA Online.

Credits

Credits

Design
Li Wei
Programming
Brenden Kootsey

Image Credits

(man and woman)
© Duncan Walker/istockphoto.com
(Peter Tyson)
Courtesy Peter Tyson
(H. erectus, Australopithecus, Dryopithecus, Proconsul)
© John D. Gurche, artist
(Aegyptopithecus)
Dan Wright © Dorling Kindersley
(Notharctus)
Mark A. Klinger, artist/© Carnegie Museum of Natural History
(Carpolestes, Dryomomys)
© Doug M. Boyer, artist
(Amoeba proteus)
© Visuals Unlimited/Corbis

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  • Who's Who In Human Evolution

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