Dionysopithecidae is an extinct family of fossil
catarrhines
The parvorder Catarrhini , catarrhine monkeys, Old World anthropoids, or Old World monkeys, consisting of the Cercopithecoidea and apes (Hominoidea). In 1812, Geoffroy grouped those two groups together and established the name Catarrhini, "Old W ...
and the earliest-known and most primitive members of the
Pliopithecoidea
Pliopithecoidea is an extinct superfamily of catarrhine primates that inhabited Asia and Europe during the Miocene. Although they were once a widespread and diverse group of primates, the pliopithecoids have no living descendants.
History of d ...
superfamily, with fossils in
Sihong in China dating to 18–17 million years ago for species ''
Dionysopithecus shuangouensis'' and ''
Platodontopithecus jianghuaiensis''.
A single lower
molar found in
Ban San Klang in Thailand is similar to those found in Sihong but sufficiently different to be considered a different species, ''
Dionysopithecus orientalis''.
They are sometimes treated as a subfamily of
Pliopithecidae as 'Dionysopithecinae'.
References
* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World page 434.
Miocene primates of Asia
Pliocene primates
Miocene extinctions
Prehistoric apes
†Pliopithecidae
Prehistoric mammal families
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