Ugandapithecus

Ugandapithecus is a proposed in 2000 by Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford name for an extinct genus of primate, which occurred during the early and middle Miocene in Africa. Fossils that have been made to this genus, are around 21 to 14 million years old.

Naming

The name of the genus is derived from the locality of some fossils in Uganda and πίθηκος of Greek, ancient Greek, pronounced píthēkos = "monkey". The delimitation of the genus Proconsul introduced in 1933 is disputed.

Age and Features

As holotype of the type species of the fossil Ugandapithecus major BMNH M 16648 was selected until then, the holotype of Proconsul major. This meant that a large number of fossils that were previously reported as proconsul, were described by Senut and Pickford now as Ugandapithecus. She herself admitted in 2009 that many other researchers reject this renaming. For example, the authors of the first description of Chororapithecus used abyssinicus the generic name Ugandapithecus in 2007 only in quotation marks, and in 2009 were the fossils from the locality Meswa Bridge, an excavation site in western Kenya scientifically described since 1981, meswae by Terry Harrison and Peter Andrews as Proconsul named, as both authors the genus Ugandapithecus not recognized as valid.

In a detailed response to her critics, and after reviewing all available fossils of Proconsul, however Senut and Pickford 2009 reaffirmed their differing sorts and names of fossils and defined in the following ways:

• Ugandapithecus meswae, 21.5 to 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, about 14.5 million years old (instead of Proconsul gitongai )

Ugandapithecus legetetensis was introduced as an additional way occupied by the holotype KNM LG 452, a mandible with preserved both sides canines and molars, as well as other fossils from several localities in Kenya ( including Legetet, after which the epithet refers ). The selected as holotype lower jaw had been previously assigned by other researchers Proconsul major. The genus Proconsul only remain with these naming proposals Proconsul africanus and Proconsul heseloni.

Senut and Pickford 2009 also argued that there had probably been an evolutionary development within the genus Ugandapithecus that meswae from relatively small Ugandapithecus legetetensis over the medium to Ugandapithecus Ugandapithecus major and have eventually led to relatively large gitongai Ugandapithecus. From this may lead to a familial line Chororapithecus, Samburupithecus and Nakalipithecus. In 2011 she speculated due to a major Ugandapithecus ascribed maxilla, this type 'm the last common ancestor of apes close.

Documents

• 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)