''Nyanzapithecus pickfordi'' is an extinct species of primate from the Middle Miocene of
Maboko Island,
Nyanza Province,
Kenya
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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 was lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and honorary affiliate at the Département Histoire de la Terre in the Muséum national d'Histoire. In 2001, Martin Pickford together wi ...
recovered more than a hundred small catarrhine fossils. Among them, described the new genus and species ''Nyanzapithecus pickfordi'', characterized by several dental specializations, and also transferred the '' Rangwapithecus'' 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 bambolii''. ''Nyanzapithecus'' was originally included in Oreopithecidae
''Oreopithecus'' (from the Greek , and , , meaning "hill-ape") is an extinct genus of hominoid primate from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed nine to seven million years ago in ...
before being transferred to Proconsulidae. described a new species, ''N. harrisoni'', from Nachola, Kenya.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 organ ...
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
Miocene primates of Africa
Fossil taxa described in 1986
Prehistoric primate genera