Palaeontologists say they have discovered the fossilised remains of a tiny creature that lived around 55 million years ago. This would make it the oldest primate ever found.

Dr. Xijun Ni of the Chinese Academy of Science was doing fieldwork in Hubei province 10 years ago and was shown a fossil that had been discovered at a quarry not far from the Yangtze River. It was encased in a rock which had been split down the middle. This left impressions on both sides.

But it took years of work to extract a complete, detailed view of the tree-dewlling creature.

What has emerged is a primate that was just a few centimetres tall and barely more than 30 grams in weight. This makes it even smaller than the pygmy lemur.
Judging from its skeleton, the creature was clearly adapted to living in trees.

It had slender limbs, a long tail, and skinny fingers. It has been called Archicebus achilles - which means "first long-tailed monkey".

Scientists say the discovery will help chart evolution of primates.