Les nouveaux restes du squelette d’ Ugandapithecus major (Miocène inférieur de Napak, Ouganda)

Abstract

New postcranial remains of Ugandapithecus major (Early Miocene, Uganda). During the 1998–2001 field seasons of the Uganda Palaeontology Expedition to Karamoja, several postcranial specimens of Miocene hominoid primates, including a proximal femur lacking the head, and an isolated femoral head were found that belong to a large bodied hominoid. The former specimen was found at Napak I and the latter at Napak IX. These remains increase the skeletal sample of Ugandapithecus major recently described at the site (Senut et al., 2000). The new specimens provide interesting information about the postcranial skeleton of the large ape species discovered by Bishop in the 1960’s and described by Rafferty and co-authors (Rafferty et al., 1995), and Gommery and co-authors (1998). The features observed on the various pieces suggest that Ugandapithecus major was a large-bodied tree climber. Comparisons with the Moroto postcranial elements reveals that Morotopithecus is a mixture of two taxa, one of which is Ugandapithecus major, the other Afropithecus turkanensis (Pickford, in press).