Ugandapithecus
Ugandapithecus is aname proposedby Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford in 2000for an extinct genus of primates thatoccurredin Africa during the early and middle Miocene . Fossils that have been assigned to this genus are around 21 to 14 million years old. The delimitation from the genus Proconsul , whichwas introduced in 1933,is controversial; the Paleobiology Database fundedby the National Science Foundation onlylists the genus Ugandapithecus as a “junior synonym” of Proconsul .
Naming
Ugandapithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from the location of some fossils in Uganda and from the Greek word πίθηκος ( pronounced píthēkos in ancient Greek : "monkey"). Ugandapithecus therefore means "monkey from Uganda".
Age and characteristics
Senut and Pickford selected the fossil BMNH M 16648 as the holotype of the genus and at the same time the type species Ugandapithecus major , until then the holotype of Proconsul major . As a result, a large number of fossils that were previously identified as proconsul were now referred to as Ugandapithecus by Senut and Pickford . Senut and Pickford themselves admitted in 2009 that numerous other researchers oppose this renaming.
For example, the authors used the first description of Chororapithecus the generic name ugandapithecus in 2007 only in quotation marks , and in 2009 the fossils from the locality scientifically described since 1981 were Meswa Bridge , an excavation site in western Kenya , by Terry Harrison and Peter Andrews as meswae proconsul named because both authors did not recognize the genus Ugandapithecus as valid.
In a detailed response to their critics and after viewing all available fossils by Proconsul , Senut and Pickford confirmed their different sorting and naming of the fossils and defined the following species of the genus Ugandapithecus :
- Ugandapithecus meswae , 21.5 - 19 million years old (instead of: Proconsul meswae )
- Ugandapithecus legetetensis , 20-19 million years old
- Ugandapithecus major , 19-18 million years old (instead of: Proconsul major )
- Ugandapithecus gitongai , approx. 14.5 million years old (instead of Proconsul gitongai )
Ugandapithecus legetetensis was introduced as an additional species , evidenced by the holotype KNM LG 452, a lower jaw with canines and molars preserved on both sides as well as by other fossils from several sites in Kenya (including Legetet, to which the epithet refers). The lower jaw selected as the holotype had previously been assigned to Proconsul major by other researchers . The only remaining names of the genus Proconsul are Proconsul africanus and Proconsul heseloni .
Senut and Pickford further argued in 2009 that there was probably an evolutionary development within the genus Ugandapithecus , which led from the relatively small Ugandapithecus meswae to the medium-sized Ugandapithecus legetetensis to Ugandapithecus major and finally to the relatively large Ugandapithecus gitongai . From this a related line may lead to Chororapithecus , Samburupithecus and Nakalipithecus . In 2011, based on an upper jaw attributed to Uganda apithecus major , they speculated that this species was close to the last common ancestor of the great apes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brigitte Senut , Martin Pickford et al .: A new genus of Early Miocene hominoid from East Africa: Ugandapithecus major (Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950). In: Les Comptes Rendus Palevol de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris. Volume 331, 2000, pp. 227-233
- ↑ Entry Ugandapithecus in the Paleobiology Database
- ^ A b Martin Pickford, Brigitte Senut et al .: Distinctiveness of Ugandapithecus from Proconsul. In: Estudios Geológicos. Volume 65, No. 2, 2009, pp. 183–241, doi: 10.3989 / egeol.39926.071 , full text (PDF)
- ↑ Newly discovered fossil could represent first great apes. On: nature.com from August 3, 2011 (with ill.). Literally it says: "My gut feeling at the moment is that it's not far from the ancestor of modern African apes and orangutans," Pickford says. "I've been waiting for about 30 years for this kind of discovery."