Sivapithecus

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Sivapithecus
Skull fragment of Sivapithecus indicus (archive number GSP 15000) in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris (copy)

Skull fragment of Sivapithecus indicus (archive number GSP 15000) in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris ( copy )

Temporal occurrence
Miocene
12 to 8 million years
Locations
Systematics
Monkey (anthropoidea)
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Human (Hominoidea)
Apes (Hominidae)
Ponginae
Sivapithecus
Scientific name
Sivapithecus
Pilgrim , 1910
Sivapithecus sivalensis , reconstruction of the GSP 15000 fossil

Sivapithecus is an extinct species of primates from the family of the apes (Hominidae). The more recent finds are around eight, the older around 13 million years old; so they aredatedto the Upper and Middle Miocene . To Sivapithecus identified fossils are very similar to those of Ramapithecus .

Naming and first description

Sivapithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus refers to the Hindu god Shiva , since the first finds were made in India . Reference is also made to the Greek word πίθηκος (in ancient Greek pronounced píthēkos : "monkey"). Sivapithecus therefore means "monkey of the god Shiva".

Sivapithecus was first scientifically described by Guy Ellcock Pilgrim in 1910 . If Sivapithecus represent male and Ramapithecus female individuals of the same species , the generic name Sivapithecus would have priority, since Ramapithecus was not scientifically described until 1934.

Appearance and way of life

Sivapithecus was probably the size of a chimpanzee , but resembled an orangutan in terms of its face . From the thickness of the enamel of the teeth one can deduce that the individuals of this genus presumably lived mainly on fruits. The physique below the head suggests a tree dweller, who mainly moved on the branches of the trees, but was also able to shimmy.

Due to the only fragmentary surviving fossils, there are only rough estimates for Sivapithecus' brain volume, according to which it corresponds to Dryopithecus and similarly sized chimpanzees, so it was probably significantly less than 400 cm³.

Tribal classification

Sivapithecus can probably be found on a branch in the family tree of the great apes that branches off below the branch of the African line (from which gorillas , chimpanzees and humans developed). A relative of Sivapithecus seems to have been the extinct giant primate Gigantopithecus . Some authors attribute a close relationship to the orangutan to the genus, while other authors question this phylogenetic closeness.

There is uncertainty about the number of species and the assignment of the finds to certain species. In the specialist literature, there are three types in particular:

  • Sivapithecus indicus (approx. 12.7–11.4 million years old)
  • Sivapithecus sivalensis (approx. 11–8.5 million years old)
  • Sivapithecus parvada (approx. 10.1 million years old, a very large species)

Sivapithecus indicus and Sivapithecus sivalensis are interpreted by some researchers as the only species or are assigned to Equatorius africanus . Sivapithecus africanus initially merged with Kenyapithecus africanus and was then interpreted as being identical to Equatorius africanus . Sivapithecus simonsi, in turn, is interpreted by some researchers as a variant of Sivapithecus sivalensis .

The genus Ramapithecus , which was mistakenly regarded as direct human ancestor in the 1960s, is sometimes assigned to the genus Sivapithecus : Some researchers even interpret Sivapithecus as the male form, Ramapithecus as the female form of the same species. The 1934 as Ramapithecus brevirostris The fossils referred to are also so similar to the remains of the species Dryopithecus punjabicus, which was scientifically described as early as 1915 (whose findings do not fit the genus Dryopithecus according to today's assessment ), which is why, according to the international rules for zoological nomenclature, the epithet punjabicus has priority over brevirostris and the species therefore as Ramapithecus punjabicus is to be designated. However, if these fossils belong to Sivapithecus as a species of their own (which some researchers advocate), they should be referred to as Sivapithecus punjabicus ; all name variants appear in the specialist literature. Conversely, Sivapithecus alpani, discovered in Turkey in 1973, was placed in 1976 with Ramapithecus wickeri and finally with Kenyapithecus wickeri .

A fossil lower jaw known from Turkey since 1957 was first assigned to the newly defined genus Ankarapithecus as Ankarapithecus meteai, assigned to the genus Sivapithecus in 1980 as Sivapithecus meteai and again classified as Ankarapithecus meteai in 1998 - together with other fossils .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. David Pilbeam : New hominoid skull material from the Miocene of Pakistan. In: Nature . Volume 295, 1982, pp. 32-34, doi: 10.1038 / 295232a0
  2. Guy Ellcock Pilgrim : Notices of new Mammalian genera and species from the Tertieries of India-Calcutta. In: Records of the Geological Survey of India. Volume 40, 1910, pp. 63-71.
  3. ^ G. Edward Lewis: Preliminary notice of new man-like apes from India. In: American Journal of Science. Series 5, Vol. 27, 1934, pp. 161-181; doi : 10.2475 / ajs.s5-27.159.161
  4. ^ Sherry V. Nelson: The Extinction of Sivapithecus: Faunal and Environmental Changes Surrounding the Disappearance of a Miocene Hominoid in the Siwaliks of Pakistan. Brill, Leiden 2003, pp. 5-6, ISBN 978-0391042070 ; Text excerpts
  5. David Begun : Planat of Live. Apes. In: Scientific american. August 2003, p. 80
  6. David Bilbeam et al .: New Sivapithecus humerus from Pakistan and the relationship of Sivapithecus and Pongo. In: Nature . Volume 348, 1990, pp. 237-239, doi : 10.1038 / 348237a0
  7. Michèle E. Morgan et al .: A partial hominoid innominate from the Miocene of Pakistan: Description and preliminary analyzes. In: PNAS . Volume 112, No. 1, 2015, pp. 82-87, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1420275111
  8. Richard F. Kay: Sivapithecus simonsi, a new species of miocene hominoid, with comments on the phylogenetic status of the ramapithecinae. In: International Journal of Primatology. Volume 3, No. 2, 1982, pp. 113-173, doi: 10.1007 / BF02693493
  9. Russell H. Tuttle: Apes and Human Evolution. Harvard University Press, 2014, p. 108, ISBN 978-0-674-07316-6
  10. ^ Fiorenzo Facchini : The Origins of Humanity. Konrad Theiss Verlag, 2006, p. 63
  11. Davin R. Begun , Erksin Güleç: Restoration of the Type and Palate of Ankarapithecus meteai: Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Implications. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 105, 1998, pp. 279-314, full text (PDF; 713 kB)