Un nouveau genre d’hominoïde du Miocène inférieur d’Afrique orientale : Ugandapithecus major (Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950)

Abstract

Abstract It has been known for a long time that the dentition of P. major differs in several features from those of P. africanus (the type species of the genus) and P. nyanzae (including P. heseloni ). Newly discovered postcranial bones from Napak assigned to Proconsul major differ markedly from those assigned to Proconsul species from the Kenyan sites of Koru, Songhor, Mfwangano and Rusinga and reveal that the species concerned differs from Proconsul at least at the generic level. We accordingly erect a new genus, Ugandapithecus , for the species Proconsul major Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950 [18] . A few of the dental and postcranial remains from Moroto, Uganda, are indistinguishable from those from Napak U. major , whereas others, including the Moroto palate (the holotype of Morotopithecus bishopi ) and much of a femur attributed to the latter species differ markedly from it. Thus at Moroto there are two genera of large bodied hominoids. It is not known to which of the genera the Moroto vertebral remains pertain, but they probably belong to U. major .