Gorgopithecus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of monkeys}}
{{Speciesbox
| fossil_range = Pliocene - Early Pleistocene{{cite web |title=Gorgopithecus |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=40867 |website=Fossilworks}}
| display_parents = 2
| genus = Gorgopithecus
| parent_authority = Broom & Robinson, 1949
| species = major
| authority = Broom, 1940
}}
Gorgopithecus is an extinct genus of primate in the Old World monkey family Cercopithecidae, closely related to the baboons.{{cite journal |journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London |volume=119 |issue=2 |pages=379–386 |title=A new type of fossil baboon, Gorgopithecus major |author=R. Broom & J. T. Robinson |year=1948 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1949.tb00887.x}}{{Cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=40867|title=Fossilworks: Gorgopithecus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021}}
There is only one known species, Gorgopithecus major. It has been found at sites from the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene Epoch in South Africa and Tanzania.{{Cite journal|last1=Gilbert|first1=Christopher C.|last2=Frost|first2=Stephen R.|last3=Delson|first3=Eric|date=2016|title=Reassessment of Olduvai Bed I cercopithecoids: A new biochronological and biogeographical link to the South African fossil record|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=92|pages=50–59|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.12.003|pmid=26989016|doi-access=free|bibcode=2016JHumE..92...50G }} It was first discovered at the Kromdraai A (also called the Kromdraai "Faunal") site in South Africa. It has since been found from Swartkrans (member 1), South Africa.{{Cite journal|last=Delson|first=Eric|date=1984|title=Cercopithecid biochronology of the African Plio-Pleistocene: correlation among eastern and southern hominid-bearing localities|journal=Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg|volume=69|pages=199–218}} Most recently, it has been recognized from the DKI site in Bed I of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, which has been dated to 1.8 million years old.
Description
Gorgopithecus major was somewhat larger in body size than the largest extant baboons, with males estimated to have weighed approximately 37 kg on average, based on dental size.{{Cite journal|last1=Delson|first1=Eric|last2=Terranova|first2=Carl J.|last3=Jungers|first3=William L.|last4=Sargis|first4=Eric J.|last5=Jablonski|first5=Nina G.|last6=Dechow|first6=Paul C.|date=2000|title=Body mass in Cercopithecidae (Primates, Mammalia): estimation and scaling in extinct and extant taxa|journal=Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History|volume=83|pages=1–159}} Like most other papionin (baboons and their close relatives) monkeys, it had a large degree of sexual dimorphism where males are much larger than females and have large, fang-like, canine teeth. Like other baboons, it has a long snout, but is distinguished from other papionin monkeys by the presence of deeply excavated fossae on the sides of its snout (postcanine fossae), absence of maxillary ridges (crests of bone along the length of the snout), and short nasal bones.{{Cite journal|last=Freedman|first=Leonard|date=1957|title=The fossil Cercopithecoidea of South Africa|journal=Annals of the Transvaal Museum|volume=23|pages=121–257}}
Paleoecology
The diet of Gorgopithecus was probably similar in many ways to that of living baboons and macaques, which are mostly opportunistic feeders with an omnivorous diet dominated by fruit, roots, tubers, grass seeds, gums, soft leaves, but also occasional insects and other animal foods.{{Cite book|title=Primate adaptation and evolution|last=G.|first=Fleagle, John|date=2013|publisher=Elsevier/Academic Press|isbn=9780123786326|edition= 3rd|location=Amsterdam|oclc=820107187}} The morphology of the molar teeth suggest it ate mostly fruits and other easily digested plant parts.{{Cite journal|last=Benefit|first=Brenda R.|date=1999|title=Victoriapithecus: The key to Old World monkey and catarrhine origins|journal=Evolutionary Anthropology|volume=7|issue=5|pages=155–174|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1999)7:5<155::AID-EVAN2>3.0.CO;2-D|s2cid=84945722 }} Microwear analysis of teeth from Kromdraai, South Africa was consistent with leaf eating, but samples were too small for statistical analysis.{{Cite journal|last1=El-Zaatari|first1=Sireen|last2=Grine|first2=Frederick E.|last3=Teaford|first3=Mark F.|last4=Smith|first4=Heather F.|date=2005|title=Molar microwear and dietary reconstructions of fossil cercopithecoidea from the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of South Africa|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=49|issue=2|pages=180–205|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.03.005|pmid=15964607|bibcode=2005JHumE..49..180E }} To date, no limb bones or other elements of the postcranial skeleton have been attributed to G. major so its manner of locomotion and whether it preferred life in the trees or on the ground is unknown.
References
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{{Portal|Paleontology}}
{{Haplorhini|C.}}
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Category:Monotypic prehistoric primate genera
Category:Pliocene mammals of Africa
Category:Pleistocene mammals of Africa
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1948
Category:Taxa named by Robert Broom
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