Dryopithecus wuduensis
| Dryopithecus wuduensis | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| late Miocene or earlier | ||||||||||||
| approx. 5-7 (-10?) million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dryopithecus wuduensis | ||||||||||||
| Xue & Delson , 1988 | ||||||||||||
Dryopithecus wuduensis is an extinct species of Old World monkey from the genus Dryopithecus thatoccurredin China around 7 million years ago during the Turolian period .
Naming
Dryopithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from Greek: drys = "oak" and πίθηκος, pronounced in ancient Greek píthēkos = "monkey". The epithet wuduensis refers to the Wudu site in the People's Republic of China, which belongs to the city of Longnan . Dryopithecus wuduensis therefore means "monkey from the oak forest of Wudu". The name of the genus was chosen by Édouard Armand Lartet in 1856 because the first fossil attributed to the genus was found in France together with remains of oaks .
Initial description
The holotype of Dryopithecus wuduensis was identified in the first description by Xue Xiang-Xu and Eric Delson as a left, dentate mandibular fragment with preserved molars and front teeth (archive number XD47Wd001). The fossil was discovered in 1947/48 by Professor Wang Yong-Yan, Faculty of Geology at the University of Northwest China .
According to the first description, the dentition of Dryopithecus wuduensis differs significantly from the species of the genus Proconsul , Kenyapithecus and Sivapithecus and most likely has common characteristics with the species of the genus Dryopithecus, which are mainly known from Europe . However, the structure and size of the preserved teeth - especially the relatively small premolars - also differ significantly from the fossils reported for Dryopithecus fontani and Dryopithecus crusafonti . According to the analyzes, fossils of other Dryopithecus species differ in terms of the length of the tooth roots , among other things .
Age
The first description of Dryopithecus wuduensis in Chinese in 1988 was based on a fossil that had been discovered in the Gansu province , in the Longjiagou valley (33 ° 24 'N, 104 ° 55' 12 " E ) in the Wudu district . The fossil could only be dated approximately on the basis of biostratigraphic analyzes; the late Miocene was identified as the lower limit ; the first description literally said: "Late Miocene (or earlier)."
Individual evidence
- ^ Xue Xiang-Xu and Eric Delson : A new species of Dryopithecus from Gansu, China. In: Kexue Tongbao. Volume 33, Beijing 1988, pp. 449-452 (Chinese); in: Chinese Science Bulletin. Volume 34, No. 3, 1989, pp. 223–229 (English), full text (PDF; 186 kB)