Dendropithecus

Dendropithecus is an extinct genus of apes native to East Africa between 20 and 15 million years ago. Dendropithecus was originally suggested to be related to modern gibbons, based primarily on similarities in size, dentition, and skeletal adaptations.[1] However, further studies have shown that Dendropithecus lacks derived hominoid traits. Instead, the traits shared between this taxon and modern primates are primitive for all catarrhines. Dendropithecus is now considered to be a stem catarrhine, too primitive to be closely related to any modern primates.[2]

Dendropithecus
Temporal range: Early–Middle Miocene
Dendropithecus macinnesi jaw
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: †Dendropithecidae
Genus: †Dendropithecus
Andrews and Simons, 1977
Species
  • D. macinnesi (Clark and Leakey, 1950) (type species)
  • D. ugandensis (Pickford et al., 2010)

Dendropithecus was a slender ape, about 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) in body length. The structure of its arms suggest that it would have been able to brachiate, swinging between trees by its arms, but that it would not have been as efficient at this form of movement as modern gibbons. However, its teeth suggest a very gibbon-like diet, likely consisting of fruit, soft leaves and flowers.[3]

Dendropithecus macinnesi was originally described as a new species of Limnopithecus, L. macinnesi, in 1950, before it was recognized as a distinct genus in 1977.[1] D. ugandensis, known primarily from material from Napak, Uganda, is morphologically similar to D. macinnesi, but is 15-20% smaller than the type species. [4] An additional species, D. orientalis, was described in 1990 from middle Miocene deposits in northern Thailand, but was transferred to the pliopithecid genus Dionysopithecus in 1999.[5]


References
  1. Andrews, Peter; Simons, Elwyn (1977). "A New African Miocene Gibbon-Like Genus, Dendropithecus (Hominoidea, Primates) with Distinctive Postcranial Adaptations: Its Significance to Origin of Hylobatidae". Folia Primatologica. 28 (3): 161–169. doi:10.1159/000155807. ISSN 0015-5713.
  2. Harrison, T., 2013. Catarrhine origins. In: Begun, D.R. (Ed.), A Companion to Paleoanthropology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 376-396.
  3. Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 291. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
  4. Pickford, M., Musalizi, S., Senut, B., Gommery, D., & Musiime, E., 2010 – Small Apes from the Early Miocene of Napak, Uganda. Geo-Pal Uganda, 3: 1-111.
  5. Begun, D.R. (2002). «The Pliopithecoidea». En Hartwig, W. C. The Primate Fossil Record. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222-240. ISBN 0521663156.
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