UDO in original size in the Benninger Ried Museum: He was about one meter tall and weighed 31 kilos. © Rainer Becker
Benningen – It's not particularly pretty, it's ancient, but it's a unique sensation: Benningen's mayor Martin Osterrieder and members of the Benninger Ried Museum e.V. and UDO - Danuvius guggenmosi e.V. associations proudly presented the guest from the distant past.
UDO from Pforzen is the name for a sensational fossil find of an ape that lived in the Ostallgäu 11.62 million years ago. It is said to be the first upright walking ape that could live both on the trees and on the ground. The primate got its name because the first important finds were made on May 17, 2016, the 70th birthday of the artist Udo Lindenberg. Now visitors to the Benninger Ried Museum can get a direct and undisguised picture of this scientific sensation, which calls into question all previous theories of human evolution.
Its scientific name is Danuvius guggenmosi. UDO was discovered in the Hammerschmiede clay pit near Pforzen (Ostallgäu), which has become an important paleontological site in Germany. UDO's fossils are currently being studied by an international research team led by Prof. Dr. Madelaine Böhme from the University of Tübingen. The results were published in the journal Nature in November 2019 and triggered a worldwide media frenzy. "Maybe we're all Allgäuers" was the logical headline of the Swiss on SRF.
15,000 finds so far
Exhibits from the hammer forge: So far, around 15,000 paleontological finds have been recovered. © Rainer Becker
Meanwhile, the Hammerschmiede clay pit continues to be busily dug, searched and researched. Mainly from the University of Tübingen. New discoveries are reported every day. So far, around 15,000 paleontological finds have been recovered from an excavation area of about 1,100 square meters. The extensive campaigns are supported by the government of Bavaria and the Förderverein UDO – Danuvius guggenmosi, among others. So far, the remains of giant salamanders, snapping turtles, rhinoceroses, deer piglets, musk deer, forest antelopes, dog bears, saber-toothed cats and pandas have been found in the hammer mill. The high number of species is currently documented with 115 species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
A sensation that is unfortunately almost unknown
This world sensation is currently on display at the Benninger Ried Museum. Various exhibits are shown, plus of course two life-size reconstructions. In addition, there are instructive lectures and guided tours at the 13 stations. On July 1, 2023, there will also be a summer evening "With Udo into the past". The traveling exhibition will only be in Benningen until the end of September 2023. A visit is possible during the opening hours of the Benninger Ried Museum.
The Förderverein UDO – Danuvius-Guggenmosi can also be booked for lectures in schools and other institutions. The contact person is Torsten Stöckle, e-mail: foerderverein-Udo@web.de.
Things worth knowing about UDO
• Udo was about one meter tall and weighed 31 kilos. The females of this species were significantly lighter at 17 to 19 kilos.
• Udo, like all great apes, was a vegetarian.
• He probably lived in smaller groups with several females and juveniles together.
• Udo lived in the floodplain forest on the edge of a medium-sized river, comparable to today's Mindel or the Günz.
• The genus name Danu-
VIUS refers to the kel-
He was a Roman river god of the same name (the name of the Danube also goes back to him). The species name guggenmosi honors the Allgäu hobby researcher Siegulf Guggenmos (Dösingen), who died in 2018.
• He is the first great ape that has been able to walk upright on two legs.
• Despite its bipedity, it lived mostly in trees.
• Its geological age surpasses the oldest known bipedal human precursors by almost six million years.
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