We descend from creatures who looked like tree shrews.

And when I say we, I mean me, you, and all the other primates on earth.

Gorillas, baboons, lemurs, tarsher, orangutons, all the primates, the whole family tree, descends from this group.

The fossil record shows that our ancestors were shrew-like arboreal

mammals. And so, for a long time, when scientists wanted to know which modern creature we

primates are most closely related to, many of them looked to the order Scandentia, modern tree shrews, a group of squirrely creatures who look a lot like our fossil ancestors.

If I were in the Sikom space back then, I would have said good guess, because frankly, it is a good guess.

Nothing wrong with it. It's a guess that would usually be right.

The modern animal who looks most like your fossil ancestors is usually your closest relative. Which modern animal looks most like

dog fossil ancestors? Most experts would say wolves, and now with modern testing we see that

wolves are dogs's closest relatives.

What modern animal looks most like human fossil ancestors?

Chimpanzees and bonobos.

And now with modern testing, we can confirm chimpanzees and bonobos are indeed our closest relatives.

Which animal looks most like primate fossil ancestors? Most experts would say Scandincha, the treacher's. But if you scrutinize

the hypothesis that they are primates' closest non-primate relatives, if you test that hypothesis with modern methods, you run into a problem.

Back in 2007, researchers from Texas A&M University looked at the DNA of primates and various

candidate relatives.

Treeshoes, of course, some other rodents and mammals, including a little-known animal

with some interesting physical similarities to primates, known as the Kaluga.

Specifically, they were looking for the insertion or deletion of various genetic sequences.

The idea being that regardless of physical similarities, regardless of what you see

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