Propliopithecus

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Propliopithecus
Lower jaw of Propliopithecus haeckeli

Lower jaw of Propliopithecus haeckeli

Temporal occurrence
Lower Oligocene
34 to 28 million years
Locations
Systematics
Monkey (anthropoidea)
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Propliopithecoidea
Propliopithecidae
Propliopithecus
Scientific name
Propliopithecus
Locksmith , 1911
species

Propliopithecus is an extinct genus of primates , the approximately 30 million year old remains of which have been found exclusively in Fayyum in Egypt . Propliopithecus is one of the earliest known representative of the Old World monkeys , which today Cercopithecidae and apes belong. Three species were assigned to thegenus.

Naming

Propliopithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus refers to the much younger fossil genus Pliopithecus and means "before Pliopithecus", where Plio refers to the geological epoch of the Pliocene , around 5 to 2.5 million years ago. The second half of the generic name is derived from the Greek word πίθηκος ( pronounced píthēkos in ancient Greek : "monkey").

The genus was named after the German geologist and paleontologist Max Schlosser . The epithet of the type species , Propliopithecus haeckeli , was chosen by Schlosser in memory of Ernst Haeckel .

Initial description

According to the first description published in 1911, the holotype of the genus and at the same time the type species Propliopithecus haeckeli is the lower jaw SMN 12638, which is kept in Stuttgart.

More finds

In 1965 Elwyn L. Simons named two new genera from the same horizon of the Fayyum site in the journal Nature : Aegyptopithecus and Aeolopithecus with the type species Aeolopithecus chirobates . He named the genus Aeolopithecus after the Greek wind god Aeolus (because a stormy wind had exposed the type specimen in a quarry), he derived the epithet chirobates from the Greek words “cheiro” (= hand) and “bates” (= runner), what put together can be translated as "handrail".

As a type specimen of the genus Aeolopithecus and its type Aeolopithecus chirobates , Simons identified the - apart from the two joint ends - almost completely preserved lower jaw CGM 26923 with teeth present on both sides (each canine up to molar M3) and preserved tooth sockets of the incisors , the one in the Egyptian Geological Museum (formerly: Cairo Geology Museum, CGM). In the first description, this fossil was expressly differentiated from the same old genus Propliopithecus , with differences in the construction of the chewing surface of molar M3 and the significantly larger canines than in Propliopithecus being mentioned. After further fossil finds, however, various researchers saw sufficiently large morphological similarities between Aeolopithecus chirobates and Propliopithecus haeckeli , especially since the size of the canines of the lower jaw CGM 26923 was interpreted as a result of a sexual dimorphism in this species and the lower jaw as that of a male. As a result, Aeolopithecus chirobates was renamed and added to the genus Propliopithecus , whereby the epithet chirobates was retained in accordance with the international rules for zoological nomenclature , so that the species is now called Propliopithecus chirobates .

In 1982, the fragments of a humerus , an ulna , a shin and several heel bones were assigned to Propliopithecus chirobates . From the structure of these bones it was deduced that the individuals of the species moved predominantly on trees on four feet. At the same time it was explained that the species has numerous original features that suggest a relationship to today's New World monkeys rather than a relationship to today's human or monkey relatives .

In 1987 Elwyn L. Simons named a third species of the genus, called Propliopithecus ankeli , in a specialist journal de American Association of Physical Anthropologists , the remains of which come from the same site as the other fossils of the genus, but were discovered there in significantly deeper layers and so strong differ from the previously known finds that, according to the first description, they cannot be considered their ancestors.

literature

  • Elwyn Simons: Egyptian Oligocene Primates: A Review. In: Yearbook of Physical Anthropologs. Volume 38, 1995, pp. 199-238, full text

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Propliopithecus haeckeli Schlosser 1911. On: fossilworks.org , March 23, 2018
  2. ^ Max Schlosser : Contributions to the knowledge of the Oligocene land mammals from the Fayum (Egypt). In: Contributions to the palaeontology and geology of Austria-Hungary and the Orient. Volume 24, 1911, pp. 51-167
  3. ^ Philip D. Gingerich : The Stuttgart collection of oligocene primates from the Fayum province of Egypt. In: Paleontological Journal. Vol. 52, No. 1-2, 1978, pp. 82-92, doi: 10.1007 / BF03006731
  4. ^ Elwyn L. Simons : New Fossil Apes from Egypt and the Initial Differentiation of Hominoidea. In: Nature . Volume 205, 1965, pp. 135-139, doi: 10.1038 / 205135a0
  5. ↑ John G. Fleagle , Richard F. Kay and Elwyn L. Simons: Sexual dimorphism in early anthropoids. In: Nature. Volume 287, 1980, pp. 328-330, doi: 10.1038 / 287328a0
  6. ^ Richard F. Kay, John G. Fleagle and Elwyn L. Simons: A revision of the Oligocene apes of the Fayum Province, Egypt. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 55, No. 3, 1981, pp. 293-322, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330550305
  7. ↑ John G. Fleagle and Elwyn L. Simons: Skeletal Remains of Propliopithecus chirobates from the Egyptian Oligocene. In: Folia Primatologica. Volume 39, 1982, pp. 161-177, doi: 10.1159 / 000156075
  8. ^ Elwyn L. Simons et al .: A new species of Propliopithecus from the Fayum, Egypt. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 73, No. 2, 1987, pp. 139-147, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330730202

annotation

  1. ↑ The Pliopithecus fossils were initially erroneously dated to the Pliocene; in fact, they come from the Miocene and are almost three times as old as initially assumed.