Rhinocolobus
| Rhinocolobus | ||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Old Pleistocene to early Pleistocene | ||||||||||
| 1.9 million years | ||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Rhinocolobus | ||||||||||
| M. Leakey , 1982 | ||||||||||
| species | ||||||||||
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Rhinocolobus turkanensis |
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Rhinocolobus is an extinct genus of primate that was foundin East Africa during the early Pleistocene . According to the first description published in 1982, fossils discoveredin Ethiopia , in the valley of the Omo Riverand east of Lake Turkana in Kenya , originatefrom sedimentary layers that are around 1.9 million years old. Rhinocolobus is considered to be a relative of the recent slipper and colobus monkeys .
Naming
Rhinocolobus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from the Greek word ῥινός (in ancient Greek pronounced rhinós : "nose") - an allusion to the long nose of the animals - and also refers to morphological commonalities of characteristics of the fossils with the characteristics of today's species of the black and white colobus monkeys (Genus Colobus ). The epithet of the only scientifically described species so far , Rhinocolobus turkanensis , refers to the location of the fossils not far from Lake Turkana.
Initial description
In the first description by Meave Leakey, the skull roof of a male individual with preserved facial skull and partially dentate left and right upper jaw was identified as the holotype of the genus and also the type species Rhinocolobus turkanensis (archive number Omo 75 1969-1012). Several male and female mandibular fragments, several skulls , some bones from the area below the skull and 60 individually found teeth were identified as paratypes .
features
Rhinocolobus was significantly larger than the species of the genus Colobus living today and had a noticeably long nose. The preserved bones from the area below the body - u. a. Fragments of the humerus , shoulder blade , tibia , fibula , cuboid , metatarsal bones and some ribs - are indistinguishable from the corresponding bones of the colobus and colobus monkeys. The individuals of this genus probably lived mainly on trees and ate leaves.
Rhinocolobus turkanensis lived approximately at the same time and in the same area as Paracolobus and Cercopithecoides kimeui .
Individual evidence
- ^ Meave Leakey : Extinct large colobines from thr Plio-Pleistocene of Africa. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 58, No. 2, 1982, pp. 153-172, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330580207 .