Chororapithecus

• East Africa ( Afar Triangle )

Chororapithecus abyssinicus is a fossil ape from the Miocene, whose remains were excavated between 2005 and 2007 in the area of the Great African grave breach in the Afar region. Chororapithecus abyssinicus was called by its discoverers as " convincing candidate for membership in the taxon of modern gorillas ," that is, as the oldest currently known ancestor of gorillas.

As a less likely, but not impossible, denote the first describer of the Japanese- Ethiopian research group that Chororapithecus have undergone abyssinicus an independent parallel development to the gorillas or was a side branch in the phylogeny of recent species.

Type specimen is a right upper molar (M2 ) with the inventory designation CHO -BT 4 In addition, a canine and seven molars were used for the classification of the new species, including two fragments. These teeth have a modern Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) comparable size and other features especially the chewing surfaces, which can be interpreted as the relationship with the gorillas. The teeth are of at least three, but possibly six or more individuals.

The on the basis of these nine teeth in August 2007 in the journal Nature scientifically described first type Chororapithecus abyssinicus was named after the Chorora - formation from which the fossil was recovered, ( píthēkos extremely ancient Greek: "Monkey " ) the Greek word πίθηκος and to Abyssinia, the former name of the country of Ethiopia. Due to the dental records the nature of the superfamily of human -like ( Hominoidea ) has been assigned. Chororapithecus abyssinicus is also the type species of the genus Chororapithecus.

The relatively thick enamel layer of the teeth discovered is interpreted as evidence of pronounced herbivorous lifestyle. This fits - According to the original description - to other fossil finds in the Chorora - layers in which numerous early relatives of our horses ( Hipparion species) have been found, also indicate their teeth on a hard, silica - containing food, such as for example, in today loosely encountered wooded savannas is.

Until these finds, the separation of the lineages of gorilla and human means of estimation had been dated to the period before about eight million years ago, the incidence of mutations ( "molecular clock "). Can abyssinicus Analysing the circumstances of Chororapithecus But be deduced that this separation may have taken place at least two million years earlier. Erstbeschreiber gene Suwo of the University of Tokyo was quoted in Nature, that the separation had taken place earlier than million before 10 to 11 years. Michel Brunet, the describer of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, exhibited in New Scientist suggests that a much earlier separation of the lineages than previously thought well tolerated is the age of Sahelanthropus ( seven million years ) of the oldest known find of a leading to humans also lineage applies.

Primates of similar geological age are Dryopithecus, Nakalipithecus, Oreopithecus and Pliopithecus.