Ouranopithecus turkae

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Ouranopithecus turkae
Temporal occurrence
late Miocene
8.7 to 7.4 million years
Locations
Systematics
Monkey (anthropoidea)
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Human (Hominoidea)
Apes (Hominidae)
Ouranopithecus
Ouranopithecus turkae
Scientific name
Ouranopithecus turkae
Güleç et al. 2007

Ouranopithecus turkae is an extinct species of primates in the genus Ouranopithecus that was foundin Turkey during the late Miocene . In Central Anatolia , on the northeastern edge of the Çankırı - pelvis discovered fossils that have been made to this type, its discoverer dated in 2007 on the basis of biostratigraphic analysis in the time before some 9-7 million years ago.

The exact classification of ouranopithecus turkae in the family tree of primates is unsettled.

Naming

Ouranopithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from Greek: Οὐρανός, Ouranos = "sky" and Greek  πίθηκος (ancient Greek pronounced) píthēkos , monkey. The epithet turkae refers to the place where it was found in Turkey. Ouranopithecus turkae therefore means "sky monkey from Turkey". According to the first description, however , the name of the genus is derived from “du grec 'ouranos' = pluie”, from “rain”, which refers to the site of the first fossil of the genus, which was discovered by the French excavators “Ravin de la Pluie” (= "Regenschlucht") was named. According to this reference, the genus should therefore apparently have been called "rain monkey".

Initial description

The holotype of Ouranopithecus turkae was used in the first description by Erksin Savas Güleç et al. the fragment of an upper jaw with 13 preserved teeth from an adult individual identified (archive number CO-205). The partially dentate lower jaw of a young individual (CO-300) and an equally partially dentate fragment of the lower jaw of an adult individual (CO-710) from the same site were added as paratypes to the holotype. All three fossils are kept at Ankara University .

Features and habitat

The body size of Ouranopithecus is comparable to that of female gorillas . In the first description of Ouranopithecus turkae , the different sized jaws of the finds are interpreted as a sign of a possible sexual dimorphism . The habitat was due to the accompanying finds as savannas interpreted -like, ie as grassland with loose, partially - occupied by colobinae and Old World monkey - but also more dense trees.

Relationship to other species

In the first description it was discussed that the sister species Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, known from Greece for a long time and dated to an age of 9.6 to 8.7 million years, had repeatedly been interpreted as a possible ancestor of Australopithecus due to features of the teeth . However, those who worked on the fossils of Ouranopithecus turkae come to the conclusion that, in contrast to Orrorin , Ardipithecus , Sahelanthropus and the species of the genus Australopithecus , its dentition was adapted to a hard-fiber, abrasive diet. Therefore Ouranopithecus could not be assigned to the direct line of ancestors of the chimpanzees and the hominini , but had to be interpreted as a temporally parallel genus to this line of development; the similarities in characteristics of Ouranopithecus turkae and the later Australopithecines are thus interpreted as convergent .

After the genus Ouranopithecus was first described at the end of the 1970s, some researchers initially moved it into the Sivapithecus family and thus temporarily moved into the family relationship of the orangutans . The distinction between Ouranopithecus and Graecopithecus is also controversial; Some of the specialist authors are of the opinion that Ouranopithecus is the northern Greek variant of Graecopithecus freybergi discovered in southern Greece ; the species Graecopithecus freybergi was defined in 1972 on the basis of a single lower jaw by Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald .

The genus Nakalipithecus, which was discovered in Kenya , has similar characteristics to Ouranopithecus .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erksin Savas Güleç, Ayla Sevim, Cesur Pehlevan and Ferhat Kaya: A new great ape from the late Miocene of Turkey. In: Anthropological Science. Volume 115, No. 2, 2007, pp. 153-158, doi: 10.1537 / ase.070501
  2. ↑ Louis de Bonis, Jean Melentis: Un nouveau genre de Primate hominoïde dans le Vallésien [Miocène supérieur] de Macédoine. In: Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris. Volume 284, No. 15 [Série D], 1977, p. 1396, note 6
  3. ↑ Raymond L. Bernor: New apes fill the gap. In: PNAS . Volume 104, No. 50, 2007, pp. 19661-19662, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0710109105
  4. ^ P. Andrews, I. Tekkaya: A revision of the Turkish Miocene hominoid Sivapithecus meteai. In: Palaeontology. Volume 23, 1980, pp. 85-95.
  5. ↑ George D. Koufos, Louis de Bonis : The Late Miocene hominoids Ouranopithecus and Graecopithecus. Implications about their relationships and taxonomy. In: Annales de Paléontologie. Volume 91, No. 3, 2005, pp. 227-240, doi: 10.1016 / j.annpal.2005.05.001
  6. ^ David W. Cameron: The taxonomic status of Graecopithecus. In: Primates. Volume 38, No. 3, 1997, pp. 293-302, doi: 10.1007 / BF02381616
  7. ↑ GHR von Koenigswald: A lower jaw of a fossil hominoid from the Lower Pliocene of Greece. In: Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Series B, Vol. 75, 1972, pp. 385-394.