Ankarapithecus

• Turkey

Ankarapithecus meteai is an extinct species of primates that occurred during the late Miocene in Turkey. 55 km northwest of Ankara near the village of Yassıören discovered fossils that have been found in this genus comes from a layer of earth, whose age has been dated using magnetostratigraphy to 10 million years.

The assignment of the genus to a particular family within the superfamily of human -like is controversial. Some researchers suggest the fossils as primary orangutans related parties, others make to the common basis of all great apes ( Hominidae ), and thus in closer proximity to the ancestors of man.

As holotype fragment of a lower jaw has been reported with associated molars in the original description by Fikret Ozansoy, which was first mentioned in 1957 and comes from scientific discovery space SINAP Tepe.

Ankarapithecus meteai is also the type species and is currently the only species of the genus Ankarapithecus. This designation refers to the proximity of the locality to Ankara and to the Greek word πίθηκος ( ancient Greek pronounced píthēkos: "Monkey "). The epithet meteai is derived from the word art " Metea " that the acronym MTA ve Arama Genel Müdürlüğü for maggots Tetkik ( Mineral Research and Exploration General Directorate ) Turkey recalls.

In 1965 the findings were described in detail scientific and thereby delineated on the basis of dentition, especially against Sivapithecus and Dryopithecus and against fossil representatives of Hominini and now living apes. Another Fossil - MTA 2125: a dentate maxilla including the bone plates of the palate - from the same site and the same horizon Fund, which had been salvaged in 1967, was first scientifically described in 1980 and made the same type as the type specimen of Ankarapithecus. At the same time but was drawn to a close resemblance to the hitherto known only from Asia species Sivapithecus indicus and Sivapithecus darwini without the maxilla could be assigned to these species due to certain features of the dentition. Since the genus Sivapithecus had already been introduced in 1910, the genus Ankarapithecus but only in 1957, was used for both fossils - proposed the species name Sivapithecus meteai - mandible and maxilla. In the same study, the hypothesis of kin near Sivapithecus meteai was reaffirmed with the orangutans.

A third, mid -1990s described Fossil - a relatively well-preserved skull face together with mandibular fragments - was nevertheless recognized as Ankarapithecus meteai. In a detailed study was also confirmed shortly after, the permission that SINAP -Tepe fossils meteai as Ankarapithecus to ask next Sivapithecus. Confirmed, however, was the view that Ankarapithecus the same clade is attributable as Sivapithecus and the orangutans.