Researchers working in Uganda say they have unearthed¹ the well-preserved fossil skull² of an ancient primate³.

乌干达研究人员称，他们挖掘出了保存完好的古灵长类动物头骨。

The researchers say the skull belongs to a creature called Ugandapithecus major
The 20 million-year-old specimen⁴ comes from the site of an extinct volcano in Uganda's north-east Karamoja region.

The scientists say preliminary analysis showed the tree-climbing herbivore（食草动物） was roughly 10 years old when it died.

The skull is about the same size as that of a chimp⁵, but its brain was smaller.

"It is a highly important fossil and it will certainly put Uganda on the map in terms of the scientific world," Martin Pickford, a palaeontologist（古生物学家） from the College de France in Paris, told journalists in Kampala.

Dr Pickford and his colleague Brigitte Senut say the fossil skull belonged to a creature they call Ugandapithecus major.

Professor Senut, a professor at the French National Museum of Natural History said that the remains⁶ would be taken to Paris to be X-rayed and documented before being returned to Uganda.

"It will be cleaned in France, it will be prepared in France... and then in about one year's time it will be returned to the country," she said.

The remote and arid⁷ region（干旱地区） of Karamoja is one of the least developed in Uganda.