# No fossil record of chimpanzees or gorillas?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985 "2005-12-04T03:45:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985/1 "2005-12-04T03:45:12Z")

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Just saw a brief mention of same on Wiki, is this true? How can such a thing be?

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985/2 "2005-12-04T03:58:59Z")

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> [@Operation Ripper](#):
>
> Just saw a brief mention of same on Wiki, is this true? How can such a thing be?

FWIW I think there have been numerous fossil apes found.

[See Fossil apes](http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/apes/fossil_ape_overview.html)

This is the only cite I found on Wiki referencing this claim -[An article on Bigfoot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot).

> [@](#):
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> Bigfoot researchers argue that the absence of fossilized evidence is not evidence of fossil absence. Sasquatch is not represented in the fossil record, but neither are gorillas and chimpanzees. Coleman and Patrick Huyghe note that “no one will look for such fossils, if the creatures involved are not thought to exist in the first place. But even with recognized primates, fossil finds are usually meager at best” (Coleman and Huyhge, 162). However, gorillas, chimpanzees and most other primates, live in tropical rainforests where conditions are unsuitable to create fossils, and in areas where few or no archeological studies were undertaken. In contrast, there are thousands of known remains of native American mammals and humans.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985/3 "2005-12-04T05:09:30Z")

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You are talking two specific genera: _Pan_ for the chimps and _Gorilla_. Both dwell in tropical forests, by and large, which is not conducive to fossilization. The John Hawks website that **astro** linked to has any number of fossil ape genera listed. (Note that many of these were “plains apes” and at least one lived in swamps – both better suited to fossilization than forest terrain.)

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-fossil-record-of-chimpanzees-or-gorillas/333985/4 "2005-12-04T07:01:46Z")

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Some [chimpanzee fossils](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7917) have been found very recently. It seems one wandered out of the rainforest and lost some teeth, half a million or so years ago.

> [@](#):
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> Many experts doubted such specimens could exist because most chimps live in the rain forests of West and central Africa where acidic soil and high rainfall levels hamper fossil preservation. […]
> 
> But in a sediment of the Kapthurin Formation in the Eastern Rift Valley, Sally McBrearty of the University of Connecticut and Nina Jablonski of the California Academy of Sciences did find three fossils with the unambiguous characteristics of chimp teeth.