New partial cranium of Dryopithecus lartet, 1863 (Hominoidea, Primates) from the upper Miocene of Can Llobateres, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

A newly discovered partial cranium, comprising 14 cranial fragments of a male of Dryopithecus laietanus from the Vallesian (upper Miocene) locality of Can Llobateres (Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain) is described. The fragments belong to the facial area, with the exception of a fragment of the temporal bone with the petrosal. Once reconstructed, we observe a moderately long face without alveolar prognatism, with rather upright nasals, high zygomatic root, very robust zygomatic with several foramina situated above the inferior rim of the orbits, orbits as high as they are wide, very broad interorbital pillar, slightly thickened supraorbital rim which does not continue across the depressed glabella, large glenoid fossa which is in a low position with regards to the external auditory meatus and a petrosal missing its subarcuate fossa. The analysis of the phylogenetic relationships makes us think that Dryopithecus belongs to the clade of the extant great apes and is a primitive member of the Pongo clade. This hypothesis suggests that some of the dental and postcranial characters shared by Pongo and the African great apes are homoplasies and that the definition of great apes based exclusively on the extant forms is perhaps not appropriate for the discussion of the phylogenetic relationships of a fossil form.