Dryopithecus

Jaw of Dryopithecus fontani

• Europe, Asia, Africa

• Dryopithecus africanus
• Dryopithecus brancoi
• Dryopithecus crusafonti
• Dryopithecus fontani
• Dryopithecus indicus
• Dryopithecus laietanus
• Dryopithecus major
• Dryopithecus nyanzae
• Dryopithecus wuduensis

Dryopithecus is an extinct genus of Old World monkeys, which was common during the Miocene in Africa, Europe and Asia. For finds from Africa age 17 to 12 million years is reported.

After Dryopithecus designated as Dryopithecinenmuster arrangement of five cusps ( " tubercles " ) was named to the tooth crowns of the molars, which are also in the of him - derived, early apes ( hominids ) is available - or its close relatives.

Naming

The name is derived from the Greek Dryopithecus: drys = " oak " and πίθηκος, ancient Greek pronounced píthēkos = "monkey", means "the monkey from the oak forest ." She was elected after the discovery of the first fossil at Saint Gaudens (France) Édouard Armand Lartet in 1856 because along with the Fund remains of oak trees were recovered. The type species of the genus, Dryopithecus fontani, was at that time in honor of the Fossil Finders, Fontan, named.

Features

With the right number of findings that were assigned to the genus, there are mostly single teeth to the lower jaw and other bone fragments; a complete skeleton has not yet been found.

It is estimated that Dryopithecus - depending on the size of the type - weighed between 18 and 45 kg. For Dryopithecus brancoi a brain volume of about 280 to 350 cubic centimeters was calculated. Because of his teeth and other skeletal remains, it is assumed that Dryopithecus was a forest dweller who lived mainly in trees, rarely on the floor came down and probably - developed by thin tooth enamel - primarily on fruits, leaves and other soft plant food fed. The facial bones of Dryopithecus and especially its posterior molars have features that are to be found in still living apes, in other Miocene apes but only in the late - Miocene genus Ouranopithecus. Of the known as Dryopithecus laietanus finds from Catalonia states that the animals of this kind could hand over hand move beneath branches.

The humerus and some other bones of the skeleton of Dryopithecus below the head have characteristics similar to those of gorillas living today. This has also helped to bring the genre into the immediate vicinity of the ancestors of apes. "Most of morphological similarities (...) are, however, considered by the majority of the authors not as synapomorphies but as Homoplasien " that is a multiple of each other arose independently.

Position in the line of ancestors

The classification of the genus in the family tree of the Old World monkeys is disputed; there is - as with Oreopithecus - two versions:

David Begun in 2009 summed up the genus Dryopithecus, Rudapithecus and Hispanopithecus and Ouranopithecus and Graecopithecus in the tribe Dryopithecini together.

Numerous findings that were initially assigned to the genus Dryopithecus later got other names:

• A 1915 by Guy Ellcock Pilgrim as Dryopithecus punjabicus called maxillary fragment is now recognized by some of the experts as Ramapithecus punjabicus, other than Sivapithecus punjabicus.

• The first sivalensis designated as Dryopithecus findings are now placed to Equatorius africanus.

• The first keiyuanensis than Dryopithecus and later Lufengpithecus be as Ramapithecus keiyuanensis designated finds since 1987 keiyuanensis as Lufengpithecus to the genus found.

Some researchers believe that it is the same genus in Dryopithecus and Proconsul.