Dendropithecus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of primates}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range =
20–15 Million years ago
| image = Dendropithecus macinnesi.JPG
| image_caption = Dendropithecus macinnesi jaw
| taxon = Dendropithecus
| authority = Andrews and Simons, 1977
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = *D. macinnesi (Clark and Leakey, 1950) (type species)
- D. ugandensis (Pickford et al., 2010)
}}
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.{{Cite journal|last1=Andrews|first1=Peter|last2=Simons|first2=Elwyn|date=1977|title=A New African Miocene Gibbon-Like Genus, Dendropithecus (Hominoidea, Primates) with Distinctive Postcranial Adaptations: Its Significance to Origin of Hylobatidae|url=https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/155807|journal=Folia Primatologica|language=english|volume=28|issue=3|pages=161–169|doi=10.1159/000155807|pmid=914128|issn=0015-5713|url-access=subscription}} 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.Harrison, T., 2013. Catarrhine origins. In: Begun, D.R. (Ed.), A Companion to Paleoanthropology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 376-396.
Description
Dendropithecus was a slender ape, about {{convert|60|cm|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.{{cite book|title=The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals|publisher=Marshall Editions|year=1999|isbn=1-84028-152-9|editor=Palmer, D.|location=London|page=291}} Dental microwear of Dendropithecus suggests that it was a generalist frugivore that had the ability to fall back on folivory if necessary.{{Cite journal |last=Shearer |first=Brian M. |last2=Ungar |first2=Peter S. |last3=McNulty |first3=Kieran P. |last4=Harcourt-Smith |first4=William E.H. |last5=Dunsworth |first5=Holly M. |last6=Teaford |first6=Mark F. |date=January 2015 |title=Dental microwear profilometry of African non-cercopithecoid catarrhines of the Early Miocene |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248414002036 |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |language=en |volume=78 |pages=33–43 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.08.011 |access-date=3 December 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct|url-access=subscription }}
Species
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. D. ugandensis, known primarily from material from Napak, Uganda, is morphologically similar to D. macinnesi, but is 15-20% smaller than the type species. 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. 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.Begun, D.R. (2002). «The Pliopithecoidea». En Hartwig, W. C. The Primate Fossil Record. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222-240. {{ISBN|0521663156}}.
References
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{{Haplorhini|Ho.}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2170546}}
Category:Miocene primates of Africa