Sivapithecus

Skull rest of Sivapithecus indicus in the Paris Muséum national d' histoire naturelle ( copy)

• Asia

Sivapithecus is an extinct genus of primates from the family of great apes ( Hominidae ). Was named the genus after the Hindu god Shiva as the first discoveries were made in India. The recent findings are considered to be about eight, older than about 13 million years old; they are so dated to the Upper and Middle Miocene.

Sivapithecus likely to have had the size of a chimpanzee, but in the construction of the face similar to an orangutan. From the thickness of the enamel of the teeth is deduced from that the individuals of this species have probably feeds primarily on fruits. The body below the head suggests a tree-dwellers, who has mainly moved on the branches of trees, but also could shimmy.

Because of only fragmentary surviving fossils there for Sivapithecus at best rough estimates for the brain volume, according to which it corresponds Dryopithecus and similarly sized chimpanzees has therefore probably be substantially less than 400 cc.

About the number of species are unclear. Sivapithecus sivalensis and Sivapithecus indicus be interpreted by some researchers as a single species or asked to Equatorius africanus; Sivapithecus africanus first went on in Kenyapithecus africanus and was then also interpreted as identical with Equatorius africanus. A well-known since 1957 from Turkey fossil mandible was initially assigned as Ankarapithecus meteai the same time newly defined genus Ankarapithecus, assigned in 1980 as Sivapithecus meteai the genus Sivapithecus and 1998 - again classified as meteai Ankarapithecus - together with other fossils. Also, the genus Ramapithecus that had been erroneously regarded in the 1960s as a direct human ancestor, sometimes attributed to the genus; some researchers suggest Sivapithecus than the masculine form of Ramapithecus; of these as Sivapithecus punjabicus designated fossils are, however, still referred to by other researchers as Ramapithecus punjabicus ( = Ramapithecus brevirostris ). Conversely, the 1973 in Turkey discovered Sivapithecus alpani 1976 Ramapithecus wickeri and finally asked to Kenyapithecus wickeri.

Sivapithecus is likely to settle in the pedigree of apes on a branch, which ( from the gorillas, chimpanzees and humans have developed ) branches below the branch of the African line. A relative of Sivapithecus seems to have been the extinct giant primate Gigantopithecus. Some authors of the genus is attributed to a close relationship to the Orangutan, by other authors, this phylogenetic proximity is doubted.

Sivapithecus was founded in 1910 by Guy Ellcock Pilgrim ( 1875-1943 ) first described scientifically. If Sivapithecus represent male and female Ramapithecus individuals of the same species, the generic name Sivapithecus would have priority because Ramapithecus was first scientifically described in 1934.