Nyanzapithecus
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| Early Miocene | ||||||||||
| 20 to 13 million years | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Nyanzapithecus | ||||||||||
| Harrison , 1986 | ||||||||||
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Nyanzapithecus is an extinct genus of primates that was foundin East Africa during the early Miocene . Fossils discoveredin Kenya belonging to this genus were partly dated to around 20 to 18 million years ago, and partly 13 million years ago.
Naming
Nyanzapithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus refers on the one hand to the place of discovery in the Kenyan province of Nyanza , on the other hand it is derived from the Greek word πίθηκος (in ancient Greek pronounced píthēkos : "monkey"). Nyanzapithecus thus means "monkey from Nyanza". The epithet of the type species, Nyanzapithecus vancouveringi , honors the New York anthropologist John Van Couvering and his wife Judith Van Couvering ; John Van Couvering discovered the fossil KNM-RU 2058 in 1968, which was selected in 1986 as the holotype of genus and type species.
In the first description, the genus was placed in the family Oreopithecidae; other authors assign them to the family Proconsulidae.
Initial description
The holotype of the genus and the type species Nyanzapithecus vancouveringi is the fragment of a left upper jaw with four preserved teeth (4th premolar to 3rd molar ) with the archive number KNM-RU 2058 from the Rusinga site . In addition, six more fossils were added as paratypes to the first description of genus and type: a second upper jaw fragment, a lower jaw and four individual teeth. The size of these fossils corresponds approximately to the comparable body parts of the Siamangs living today .
In 1986, the fossil records of the first description of the genus Nyanzapithecus by Terry Harrison also included fossils that Peter Andrews assigned as type specimens to the genus and species Rangwapithecus vancouveringi, which he had newly named , including the fossil KNM-RU 2058, which Andrews assigned as type specimen for Rangwapithecus vancouveringi had expelled. After additional fossils from the early Miocene had been discovered in Kenya, Harrison argued in 1986 that the type species of the genus Rangwapithecus , Rangwapithecus gordoni , introduced by Andrews in 1974 at the same time as Rangwapithecus vancouveringi , Rangwapithecus gordoni , differed so significantly from the findings made for Rangwapithecus vancouveringi that for Rangwapithecus vancouveringi its own generic name is appropriate. Following the international rules for zoological nomenclature , the referring epithet vancouveringi was retained for this renaming .
The genus was also delimited from Mabokopithecus clarki ( von Koenigswald , 1969) and the much younger genus Oreopithecus .
Species of the genus
The following species are assigned to the genus Nyanzapithecus :
- Nyanzapithecus alesi , named for the first time in 2017 by a research group led by Fred Spoor from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , as evidenced by the 13 million year old, well-preserved children's skull KNM-NP 59050 from Napudet in the Turkana Basin , northern Kenya. The epithet alesi (derived from the word ales ) means"ancestor" / "ancestor"in the Turkana language widespread in northern Kenya.
- Nyanzapithecus harrisoni , around 15 million year old finds from Nachola in the Samburu District , Northern Kenya, named after Terry Harrison in 1997;
- Nyanzapithecus pickfordi , a 20 to 18 million year old tooth from Maboko Island ( Lake Victoria, Kenya), named in 1986 by Terry Harrison after Martin Pickford - type specimen is a well-preserved left upper molar 1, archive number KNM-MB 11645;
- Nyanzapithecus vancouveringi (also: Nyanzapithecus vancouveringorum ), 20 to 18 million year old fossils from the Rusinga and Mfangano ( Lake Victoria , Kenya ) and Songhor ( Nyando District , Kenya) sites
literature
- Yutaka Kunimatsu: A Revision of the Hypodigm of Nyanzapithecus vancouveringi. In: African Study Monographs. Volume 14, No. 4, 1992, pp. 231–235, full text (PDF)
- Russell H. Tuttle: Seven Decades of East African Miocene Anthropoid Studies. In: Hidemi Ishida et al. (Ed.): Human origins and environmental backgrounds. Springer, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-387-29638-8
Remarks
- ↑ Peter Andrews named the two newly named species Rangwapithecus gordoni and Rangwapithecus vancouveringi in their first description in 1974 Dryopithecus gordoni and Dryopithecus vancouveringi and introduced the name Rangwapithecus as a subgenus of the genus Dryopithecus . He wanted to make it so clear that both species differ considerably from the other species of the genus Dryopithecus known at the time .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Terry Harrison : New Fossil Anthropoids From the Middle Miocene of East Africa and Their Bearing on the Origin of the Oreopithecidae. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 71, No. 3, 1986, pp. 265–284, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330710303 , full text (PDF)
- ↑ Iyad S. Zalmout et al .: New Oligocene primates from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys. In: Nature . Volume 466, 2010, pp. 360-364, doi: 10.1038 / nature09094
- ^ Peter Andrews : New species of Dryopithecus from Kenya. In: Nature . Volume 249, 1974, pp. 188-190, doi: 10.1038 / 249188a0
- ↑ Isaiah Nengo et al .: New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution. In: Nature. Volume 548, 2017, pp. 169-174, doi: 10.1038 / nature23456
- ↑ Yutaka Kunimatsu: New Species of Nyanzapithecus from Nachola, Northern Kenya. In: Anthropological Science. Volume 105, No. 2, 1997, pp. 117-141, doi: 10.1537 / ase.105.117