Look at this face.

That's Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a Miocene hominoid from Spain described in this week's issue of Science. What's special about it is that it appears to be the closest thing to a last common ancestor of all of the great apes.

One of the nice things about being an atheist is that I get to reserve all of my awe for the things that warrant it…and the face of one of our distant cousins from 13 million years ago certainly deserves deep reverence.

That image is enough for me, but I suppose I can also share a few other tidbits from the paper. Here's the abstract:

We describe a partial skeleton with facial cranium of Pierolapithecus catalaunicus gen. et sp. nov., a new Middle Miocene (12.5 to 13 million years ago) ape from Barranc de Can Vila 1 (Barcelona, Spain). It is the first known individual of this age that combines well-preserved cranial, dental, and postcranial material. The thorax, lumbar region, and wrist provide evidence of modern ape–like orthograde body design, and the facial morphology includes the basic derived great ape features. The new skeleton reveals that early great apes retained primitive monkeylike characters associated with a derived body structure that permits upright postures of the trunk. Pierolapithecus, hence, does not fit the theoretical model that predicts that all characters shared by extant great apes were present in their last common ancestor, but instead points to a large amount of homoplasy in ape evolution. The overall pattern suggests that Pierolapithecus is probably close to the last common ancestor of great apes and humans.

And here's another photo of the collection of remains from this individual.

And for the anthropologists, some details behind the cladogram for this organism.

Cladogram depicting the phylogenetic relationships of Early and Middle Miocene hominoids, with special reference to P. catalaunicus. Only those taxa with evidence of the axial skeleton and/or wrist/ulnar joint complex are considered. Therefore, Afropithecus does not appear in the cladogram. 1: Absence of tail, medial torsion of the humeral head, low position of the maxillopremaxillary suture/nasal contact, wide anterior palate, and other features discussed in (39). 2: The lumbar vertebra of Morotopithecus shows clear affinities with extant apes. This is, however, the only evidence that situates this genus within the crown hominoids. 3: Strong rib curvature forming a wide and anteroposteriorly compressed thorax; long and robust clavicle, scapula situated on the back of the thorax; high intermembral index; ulnar shelf of radius excluding ulnar head from joint, mediolaterally broad radiolunate facet; reduced triquetrum with distal migration of pisiform, reduction of the contact between styloid process and triquetrum; lumbar vertebrae reduced in number, lacking ventral keel, with robust, wide, and short pedicles of the neural arch, caudally oriented spinous processes, and transverse processes that do not arise from the broader part of the vertebral body as in monkeys, nor from the pedicle as in extant great apes, but instead insert at an intermediate position at the junction between pedicle and body; wide ilium. 4: The orthograde body plan of Pierolapithecus situates this genus within the crown hominoids. The great ape facial anatomy makes it a sister group of great apes and humans. Short face, with the frontal processes of the maxillae, the nasals, and the orbits in the same plane, and flat nasals that project anteriorly beneath the level of the lower orbital rims; high zygomatic roots, a high nasoalveolar clivus, and a broad nasal aperture widest at the base. Triquetrum not articulating with the ulnar styloid. This clade includes all Late Miocene Eurasian hominoids.

I think I'll just look into those eyes for awhile.

Moyà-Solà S, Köhler M, Alba DM, Casanovas-Vilar I, Galindo J (2004) Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a New Middle Miocene Great Ape from Spain. Science 306(5700):1339-1344.