Ankarapithecus

Ankarapithecus
Maxilla fragment MTA2125 of meteai Ankarapithecus , exhibited in the Natural History Museum , London
Temporal occurrence
late Miocene
10 million years
Locations
Turkey
Systematics
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini) Human (Hominoidea) Apes (Hominidae) Ponginae Ankarapithecus
Scientific name
Ankarapithecus
Ozansoy , 1957
species
Ankarapithecus meteai

Ankarapithecus is an extinct genus of primates that was foundin Turkey during the late Miocene . 55 km northwest of Ankara , near the municipality of Yassıören, discovered fossils belonging to this genus come from a layer of earth whose age hasbeen dated to 10 million yearswith the help of magnetostratigraphy .

The assignment of the genus to a particular family within the superfamily of the human species is controversial. Some researchers interpret the fossils as primarily related to the orangutans , others place them on the common basis of all great apes (Hominidae) and thus also in closer proximity to the ancestors of humans .

Naming

Ankarapithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus refers to the proximity of the place of discovery to the Turkish capital Ankara and to the Greek word πίθηκος ( pronounced píthēkos in ancient Greek : "monkey"). The epithet of the only scientifically described species so far , Ankarapithecus meteai, is derived from the made-up word "Metea", which refers to the abbreviation MTA for Maden ve Tetkik Arama Genel Müdürlüğü (roughly: "General Directorate for Mineral Research and Exploration") in Turkey. Ankarapithecus meteai consequently means “Ankara monkey in honor of the MTA”.

Initial description

As a holotype of the genus and also the type species Ankarapithecus meteai , the fragment of a lower jaw with associated molars was identified in the first description by Fikret Ozansoy , which was first mentioned scientifically in 1957 and comes from the Sinap Tepe site .

More finds

It was not until 1965 that the lower jaw was scientifically described in detail and, on the basis of the dentition, delimited in particular from Sivapithecus and Dryopithecus as well as from fossil representatives of the hominini and apes living today. Another fossil - MTA 2125: a toothed upper jaw including the bony plates of the palate - from the same site and horizon as the lower jaw, which had been recovered in 1967, was scientifically described only in 1980 and attributed to the same species as the type specimen of Ankarapithecus . At the same time, however, a great similarity was pointed out to the species Sivapithecus indicus and Sivapithecus darwini , previously known only from Asia , without the upper jaw being able to be assigned to these species due to certain features of the dentition. Since the genus Sivapithecus had already been introduced in 1910, but the genus Ankarapithecus only in 1957, the species name "Sivapithecus meteai" was proposed in 1980 for both fossils - lower and upper jaw. In the same study, the hypothesis that "Sivapithecus meteai" is related to the orangutans was confirmed.

A third fossil, described in the mid-1990s - a relatively well-preserved facial skull along with fragments of the lower jaw - was nonetheless identified as Ankarapithecus meteai . In a detailed study shortly afterwards, the authorization to place the Sinap-Tepe fossils as Ankarapithecus meteai next to Sivapithecus was confirmed . On the other hand, the view that Ankarapithecus belongs to the same clade as Sivapithecus and the orangutans was confirmed.

Individual evidence

1. ^ MTA = Maggot Tetkik ve Arama Enstitüsü , the place where the fossil was kept
2. ↑ ^{a b} Fikret Ozansoy : Faunes de mammiferes du Tertiaire de Turquie et leurs revisions atratigraphiques. In: Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration Institute. Volume 49, 1957, pp. 29–48, full text ( Memento from August 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 367 kB)
3. ↑ ^{a b c} David R. Begun , Erksin Güleç : Restoration of the Type and Palate of Ankarapithecus meteai: Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Implications. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 105, No. 3, 1998, pp. 279-314, doi : 10.1002 / (SICI) 1096-8644 (199803) 105: 3 <257 :: AID-AJPA1> 3.0.CO; 2-P , full text with numerous Images (PDF; 730 kB) ( Memento from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ ^{a b} Berna Alpagut et al .: A new specimen of Ankarapithecus meteai from the Sinap Formation of central Anatolia. In: Nature . Volume 382, ​​1996, pp. 349-351, doi: 10.1038 / 382349a0
5. ^ Fikret Ozansoy: Étude des gisements continentaux et des mammifères du Cénozoïque de Turquie. In: Les Mémoires de la Société géologique de France. Volume 44, 1965, pp. 1-92
6. ↑ Peter Andrews , Ibrahim Tekkaya: A revision of the Turkish Miocene hominoid Sivapithecus meteai. In: Paleontology. Volume 23, 1980, pp. 85–95, full text (PDF; 1.9 MB)