Afropithecus

Afropithecus

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Afropithecus

Afropithecus was a primate that lived in Africa and Saudi Arabia during the early to middle Miocene, 16?18 million years ago. First named by the Leakeys in 1986, the genus is currently represented by one species, Afropithecus turkanensis.

Morphology

Like many fossil catarrhines, Afropithecus is known primarily from teeth. Notable dental features include large protruding incisors, small tusklike canines and upper premolars with a large occlusal area. The teeth of A. turkanensis had a thick enamel cover. This cover may have been needed for the diet of Afropithecus, which might have consisted of nuts and other foods protected by a hard, durable husk. This innovation might have played a key role in establishing a foothold in the forests of Eurasia by giving A. turkanensis access to resources not available to Proconsul and other earlier apes. The few postcranials that have been found are similar to P. nyanzae and indicate a generalized arboreal quadrupedal locomotor pattern.

Afropithecus is closely related to the better known early Miocene primate Proconsul but is distinguished from this catarrhine by being larger overall in body size and possessing a long, narrow, snout, small orbits and a broad interorbital area. A. turkanensis may have certain affinities with Heliopithecus, Kenyapithecus, and the large hominoid from Moroto and Napak, but nothing definite can be said as few common anatomical parts are preserved. Plesiomorphic traits including a large snout link this taxon to earlier Propliopithecids, such as Aegyptopithecus, but its distinctive premolar morphology aligns it with hominoids. Most classifications place Afropithecus either as the sister group to living hominoids or as a stem catarrhine.