Afropithecus
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Afropithecus Temporal range: Miocene |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Superfamily: | Hominoidea |
| Family: | Afropithecidae |
| Genus: | Afropithecus |
| Species: | A. turkanensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Afropithecus turkanensis Leakey and Leakey, 1986 |
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Afropithecus turkanensis is a Miocene hominoid which was excavated from a small site near Lake Turkana called Kalodirr in northern Kenya in 1986 and was named by Richard Leakey and Meave Leakey. The estimated age of Afropithecus is between 16 and 18 million years old, which was determined with radiometric dating techniques and the geological studies conducted by Broschetto and Brown from the University of Utah. In total there are 46 recovered specimens from Kalodirr relating to Afropithecus consisting of cranial, mandible, dentition and post-cranial remains. The type specimen of Afropithecus turkanensis is KNM-WK 16999.
Richard Leakey and Meave Leakey first described Afropithecus turkanensis to be a large hominoid which appeared to have relatively thick enamel. Leakey suggested that A. turkanensis shared postcranial features with the species Proconsul nyanzae, which is the best known genus Miocene with literally hundreds of fossils having been found representing almost all skeletal elements, and sharing cranial features with Aegyptopithecus zeuxis and dental features with Heliopithecus which had two weathered molars that indicated a general distinction from known large early catarrhines, and later concluded that A. turkanenensis was a primitive, arboreal quadruped similar to P. nyanzae, and that A. turkanensis had primitive facial morphology and derived dental characteristics that would suggest a diet of hard fruits.
The type specimen, KNM-WT 16999 is composed of a long distinct snout, the facial skeleton, frontal, much of the coronal structure, most of the sphenoid, and relatively unworn adult dentition; the right orbit (virtually complete), the right zygomatic, the pterygoid, most of the sphenoid and lesser wings, the maxilla and premaxilla, and adult dentition with procumbent incisors. The surface on the right side maxilla and premaxilla along with the enamel on the right molars has been lost over time and has been replaced with calcite crystals, which only provide the general shape and not the details.
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Wikipedia