Dendropithecidae

{{Short description|Extinct family of primates}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range =
20–12 Million years ago

| image = Dendropithecus macinnesi.JPG

| image_caption = Dendropithecus macinnesi

| display_parents = 3

| parent_authority =

| taxon = Dendropithecidae

| authority = Harrison, 2002

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision = †Dendropithecus

†Simiolus

†Nyanzapithecinae

†Micropithecus

}}

The family Dendropithecidae is an extinct family of catarrhine apes. They date from the Early Miocene, around 20-12 million years ago.{{cite book|editor-last1=Begun|editor-first1=D. R.|title=A Companion To Paleoanthropology|date=2013|chapter=Catarrhine Origins| vauthors = Harrison T |publisher=Wiley Blackwell|pages=376–396|isbn=978-1-118-33237-5|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/7124992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oIoT1RcFeCwC&pg=PT276|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905165333/https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/33764341/2013_Harrison_Catarrhine_Origins-libre.pdf?1400756803=&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B+filename%3D2013_Harrison_Catarrhine_Origins.pdf&Expires=1693936325&Signature=OWX3yx3JNGeum50oUIS7EzGU0j7tDyiQbwi1NedTEH4~sx5k48w5OayaSqZRjvfHvbI1Qxj~wAnpvscbVJTDyATfFbMaRm92Ct9jJ8PpA-8tei2EswPh6HP0eyMT1HZTVSrVSepJdoX9vR2CJPqoWKAbyWyuqOdkLRqKbvY47amB5DtUtfqNIjfm90ue3ofTMmCV91jswXFzzZV~As~FXqEte6pjAUAXKnTHuuCb1fnLTBuGhB-qHG9sDYg3SMVAvolHfF16Oprthi9ZOzvzfFR6lP~PWCjWTLTODkuPtQ-JMRWnEkd23XkKq~w~xhwvt~Lz~nuiXcvW2b94SF1~Lg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA |archive-date=2023-09-05}}

Fossils of the two Dendropithecus species, Dendropithecus macinnesi and Dendropithecus ugandensis, have been found in East Africa, including several partial skeletons of Dendropithecus macinnesi on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria. Other species are Simiolus andrewsi, Simiolus cheptumoae, Simiolus enjiessi. Micropithecus clarki and Micropithecus leakeyorum may not be part Dendropithecidae, and may be sister to the crown Catarrhini (or, depending on the definition, the apes and the Cercopithecidae may have emerged in the Dendropithecidae).{{cite journal|display-authors=6|vauthors=Rasmussen DT, Friscia AR, Gutierrez M, Kappelman J, Miller ER, Muteti S, Reynoso D, Rossie JB, Spell TL, Tabor NJ, Gierlowski-Kordesch E, Jacobs BF, Kyongo B, Macharwas M, Muchemi F|date=March 2019|title=Primitive Old World monkey from the earliest Miocene of Kenya and the evolution of cercopithecoid bilophodonty|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=116|issue=13|pages=6051–6056|doi=10.1073/pnas.1815423116|pmc=6442627|pmid=30858323|bibcode=2019PNAS..116.6051R |doi-access=free}} The later Nyanzapithecinae (including Oreopithecus († 7 Ma){{Cite journal|last1=Nengo|first1=Isaiah|last2=Tafforeau|first2=Paul|last3=Gilbert|first3=Christopher C.|last4=Fleagle|first4=John G.|last5=Miller|first5=Ellen R.|last6=Feibel|first6=Craig|last7=Fox|first7=David L.|last8=Feinberg|first8=Josh|last9=Pugh|first9=Kelsey D.|date=2017|title=New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=548|issue=7666|pages=169–174|doi=10.1038/nature23456|pmid=28796200|bibcode=2017Natur.548..169N|s2cid=4397839|issn=0028-0836|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1570349/1/Spoor_Nengo-et-al_text.pdf}}) appear to be sister to Simiolus.

{{Clade|{{clade

|1=Cercopithecoidea

|label2=Hominoidea

|2={{clade

|label1=Dendropithecidae

|1={{clade

|1=Dendropithecus

|2={{clade

|1=Simiolus

|label2=Nyanzapithecinae

|2={{clade

|1=Turkanapithecus

|2={{clade

|1=Rangwapithecus

|2={{clade

|1={{clade

|1=Oreopithecus

|2=Rukwapithecus

}}

|2=Nyanzapithecus

}}

}}

}}

}}

}}

|2=advanced Hominoidea}}}}|label1=Crown Catarrhini|style1=line-height:80%;font-size:80%}}