Parapithecus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of primates}}

{{italic title}}{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Parapithecus

| fossil_range = Eocene-Oligocene, {{fossilrange|40|33}}

| image = Parapithecus grangeri mandible 2.jpg

| image_caption = Mandible of P. grangeri

| taxon = Parapithecus

| authority = Schlosser, 1910

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• P. fraasi Schlosser, 1910

}}

Parapithecus is an extinct genus of primate that lived during the Late Eocene-Earliest Oligocene in what is now Egypt. Its members are considered to be basal anthropoids and the genus is closely related to Apidium. There are two known species. They lived about 40 to 33 million years ago. {{cite book|author-link=K. Christopher Beard| vauthors = Beard CK |chapter=Basal anthropoids |editor= Hartwig, Walter |title = The Primate Fossil Record |publisher = Cambridge University Press |pages=133–149 |year = 2002|isbn = 978-0-521-08141-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ezm1OA_s6isC&q=hartwig+primate |editor-link = Walter Hartwig}}

Parapithecus had an unusual dentition, which contained no adult lower incisors.{{Cite journal | vauthors = Simons EL |date=1986-03-01 |title=Parapithecus grangeri of the African Oligocene: an archaic catarrhine without lower incisors |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |language=en |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=205–213 |doi=10.1016/S0047-2484(86)80046-X |bibcode=1986JHumE..15..205S |issn=0047-2484}} The upper dentition likely had four incisors.{{cite journal | vauthors = Simons EL | title = The cranium of Parapithecus grangeri, an Egyptian Oligocene anthropoidean primate | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 98 | issue = 14 | pages = 7892–7897 | date = July 2001 | pmid = 11438736 | pmc = 35439 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.051003398 | bibcode = 2001PNAS...98.7892S | doi-access = free }} This means the adult dental formula can be expressed as: Incisors: 2/0; Canines: 1/1; Premolars: 3/3; Molars: 3/3.