For the first time, Victoriapithecus, the oldest known Old World Monkey, grabbed the limelight in 1997. At that time, its fossilized skull was discovered on an island in Kenya's Lake Victoria, where it used to live 115 million years ago. Now, a new study based on its brain has unveiled that brain complexity has evolved faster than brain's size in the primates.

Researchers have developed a three-dimensional computer model exhibiting how the monkey's brain actually looked like. From which, it has been found that Victoriapithecus had a small brain when compared to its body.

But they were surprised to know that though the brain's size was small, the animal's brain was quite complex. The CT scans led researchers know that the olfactory bulb was three times larger than what was actually expected.

Study's co-author Lauren Gonzales from Duke University said that seeing the scans it can be said that this monkey had better sense of smell than any other monkey and apes living today.

"In living higher primates you find the opposite: the brain is very big, and the olfactory bulb is very small, presumably because as their vision got better their sense of smell got worse", stated Gonzales. However, such was not the case with Victoriapithecus, as its both senses were well retained. The study researchers said that Victoriapithecus's brain volume was 36 cubic cms.