''Nyanzapithecus'' is an extinct genus of primate from the Middle Miocene of
Maboko Island
Maboko Island is a small island lying in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, in Nyanza Province of western Kenya. It is about 1.8 km long by 1 km wide. It is an important Middle Miocene, Middle Miocene Paleontology, paleontological site with fossil ...
,
Nyanza Province
Nyanza Province (; ) was one of Kenya's eight administrative provinces before the formation of the 47 counties under the 2010 constitution. Six counties were organised in the area of the former province.
The region is located in the southwes ...
,
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
.
This genus is known from four species. It had an average body mass of around .
Taxonomy
Fifteen cranio-dental specimens of this species were collected from the island between the years 1933-73.
During an expedition to Maboko Island in 1982–83, paleoanthropologist Martin Pickford
Martin Pickford (born 1943) is a lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France recovered more than a hundred small catarrhine
The parvorder Catarrhini (known commonly as catarrhine monkeys, Old World anthropoids, or Old World monkeys) consists of the Cercopithecoidea and apes (Hominoidea). In 1812, Geoffroy grouped those two groups together and established the name Ca ...
fossils. Among them, described the new genus and species ''Nyanzapithecus pickfordi'', characterized by several dental specializations, and also transferred the ''Rangwapithecus
''Rangwapithecus'' is an extinct genus of ape from the Early Miocene of Kenya. Late Miocene phalanges from Hungary have also been assigned to this genus, but were later reclassified as ''Dryopithecus''.
Description
''Rangwapithecus'' weighed app ...
'' species ''R. vancouveringi'' to the genus renaming it ''N. vancouveringorum''. ''Nyanzapithecus'' was considered closely related to ''Rangwapithecus'' and '' Mabokopithecus'' based on dental similarities, and an early relative of ''Oreopithecus
''Oreopithecus'' (from the Greek , and , , meaning "hill-ape") is an extinct genus of ape from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed 9–7 million years ago in the Tusco-Sardinian a ...
bambolii''. ''Nyanzapithecus'' was originally included in Oreopithecidae
''Oreopithecus'' (from the Greek , and , , meaning "hill-ape") is an extinct genus of ape from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed 9–7 million years ago in the Tusco-Sardinian a ...
before being transferred to Proconsulidae. described a new species, ''N. harrisoni'', from Nachola, Kenya.congeneric
Congener may refer to:
* Congener (biology), organisms within the same genus
* Congener (chemistry), related chemicals, e.g., elements in the same group of the periodic table
* Congener (beverages), a substance other than ethanol produced during t ...
and even conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...
with ''N. pickfordi'' and thus renamed the latter ''Mabokopithecus pickfordi/clarki'' and Kunimatsu's species ''M. harrisoni''.
Dental morphology
''Nyanzapithecus pickfordi'' has a dental formula of 2:1:2:3 on both the upper and lower jaw. The upper premolars were long and had buccal and lingual cusps which resembled each other in size the lower molars had deep notches. Based upon dental morphology this was a folivorous species.
Notes
References
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{{Taxonbar, from1=Q7070903, from2=Q107564377
Nyanzapithecinae
Miocene primates
Miocene primates of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1986
Prehistoric primate genera