elwyn l simons known as the father of modern primate paleontology dies at 85 creditmegan mendenhallduke photographymarch 16 2016elwyn l simons an intrepid scientist known as the father of modern primate paleontology for his discovery of some of humankinds earliest antecedents died on march 6 in peoria ariz he was 85his death was announced by duke university where he was an emeritus professor of evolutionary anthropologythough dr simonss career took in myriad fossils including whales feet in the distant past in which his professional life was lived the footed whale was no oxymoron he was concerned in particular with the earliest primateselwyn made an enormous and really incomparable contribution to the science of human origins particularly at the very early end of the scale the background out of which our hominid lineage emerged ian tattersall an emeritus curator in the division of anthropology at the american museum of natural history said in a telephone interview on tuesdaydr simons was equal parts scientist and adventurer in leading more than 90 expeditions to egypt india iran libya madagascar wyoming and elsewhere he braved badlands weathered sandstorms dodged unexploded world war ii land mines and crawled through limestone caves in pursuit of his venerable quarryhe was an indefatigable fossilfinder dr tattersall said he probably has found in his career more fossils bearing on primate evolution than anybody of his generationdr simons did not so much dig as divinehe had the golden touch for finding fossils dr tattersall said in the kind of paleontology that elwyn did you dont really dig what you do is you scour the landscape to see what is eroding up from below or being carried down along the slope from above he addedhe would go to the places where the fossils were and that is an extraordinary thing because you dont know where the fossils are to begin with but he had an unerring sense of where the fossils ought to bedr simons carried out much of his work in the fayum region of egypt some 60 miles southwest of cairo today a desert it was many millions of years ago a forested swamp teeming with early primatestracing human ancestry is sort of like tracing your family tree dr simons told united press international in 1990 once you find out who your greatgrandfather was then you want to know who his father washis most seminal find made in the fayum in the mid1960s was the skull of a catsize treedwelling primate he called aegyptopithecus the creature about 33 million years old was on its discovery the earliest known common forebear of apes monkeys and manas david r pilbeam the henry ford ii professor of human evolution at harvard said on tuesday aegyptopithecus is probably the bestknown example of a fossil primate that predates the split between the hominoids thats that group containing the living apes and humans and the cercopithecoids the old world monkeys its not clear at the moment exactly when those two groups split but probably about