Kenyapithecus

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Kenyapithecus
Kenyapithecus wickeri

Kenyapithecus wickeri

Temporal occurrence
middle Miocene
15.5 to 14.0 million years
Locations
Systematics
Dry- nosed primates (Haplorrhini)
Monkey (anthropoidea)
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Human (Hominoidea)
incertae sedis
Kenyapithecus
Scientific name
Kenyapithecus
Leakey , 1961
species

Kenyapithecus is an extinct genus of primates that was foundin East Africa during the Middle Miocene . Fossils discoveredin Kenya , on the edge of the Great Rift Valley ,wererecoveredfrom strata of the earth that are 15.5 to 14 million years old.

Naming

Kenyapithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from the location in Kenya ( English : Kenya) and from the Greek word πίθηκος ( pronounced píthēkos in ancient Greek : "monkey"). Kenyapithecus thus means "Kenya monkey".

Finds

The genus Kenyapithecus was introduced in 1961 by Louis Leakey with the type species Kenyapithecus wickeri . In 1967, Leakey assigned finds from slightly older strata to the new species Kenyapithecus africanus . The approximately 14 million year old fossils of Kenyapithecus wickeri come exclusively from a site near Fort Ternan in western Kenya; the finds of Kenyapithecus africanus , dated to an age of 15.5 to 14 million years, come from the area of ​​the Tugen Hills and from Nachola in the Samburu District .

The close relationship between the two species, i.e. the right to assign them to a common genus, was controversial from the start because of the small number of bones discovered. As early as 1967 Louis Leakey published - after finding further skeletal fragments - a revised description ("revised diagnosis") of the genus Kenyapithecus , in which, in addition to various features of the dentition, the only slightly protruding snout and an anatomical proximity to Ramapithecus were mentioned . After a significant partial skeleton was found in the Tugen Hills, the fossils of Kenyapithecus africanus were removed from the genus Kenyapithecus in 1999 and assigned to the newly defined genus Equatorius , together with other finds as Equatorius africanus ; this regrouping was criticized a few months later, however, with the note that one had failed to make a clear distinction from Griphopithecus .

So far, the fossils separated by Kenyapithecus wickeri from a site in Turkey , which were called Kenyapithecus kizili , are not generally recognized .

Web links

Commons : Kenyapithecus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b L. SB Leakey : A new Lower Pliocene fossil primate from Kenya. In: The Annals & Magazine of Natural History , Volume 4, Series 13, 1961, pp. 689-696
  2. ^ A b Steve Ward, Barbara Brown, Andrew Hill, Jay Kelley and Will Downs: Equatorius: A New Hominoid Genus from the Middle Miocene of Kenya. In: Science , Volume 285, No. 5432, 1999, pp. 1382-1386, doi : 10.1126 / science.285.5432.1382
  3. ↑ a b L. SB Leakey: An Early Miocene Member of Hominidae. In: Nature , Volume 213, 1967, pp. 155-163, doi : 10.1038 / 213155a0
  4. ↑ David R. Begun : Middle Miocene Hominoid Origins. In: Science , Volume 287, No. 5462, 2000, p. 2375, doi : 10.1126 / science.287.5462.2375a
  5. ↑ Jay Kelley et al: A new hominoid species from the middle Miocene site of Paşalar, Turkey. In: Journal of Human Evolution , Volume 54, No. 4, 2008, pp. 455-479, doi : 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2007.08.007