Ouranopithecus

Ouranopithecus; Temporal range: Miocene, 9.6–7.4 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Ouranopithecus macedoniensis skull in the French National Museum of Natural History, Paris
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Infraorder:	Simiiformes
Family:	Hominidae
Tribe:	†Graecopithecini
Genus:	†Ouranopithecus; Bonis & Melentis, 1977
Species
	†Ouranopithecus macedoniensis ; †Ouranopithecus turkae ;

Ouranopithecus is a genus of extinct Eurasian great ape represented by two species, Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, a late Miocene (9.6–8.7 mya) hominoid from Greece^[1] and Ouranopithecus turkae, also from the late Miocene (8.7–7.4 mya) of Turkey.^[2]

The first specimen O. macedoniensis was discovered by French palaeontologists Louis de Bonis and Jean Melentis in 1977,^[3] and O. turkae by Turkish team led by Erksin Savaş Güleç in 2007.^[2] For a long time it was considered as similar (synonymous) to Graecopithecus and member of the genus Sivapithecus,^[4] which more discoveries proved otherwise.

Description and systematics

Based on O. macedoniensis' dental and facial anatomy, it has been suggested that Ouranopithecus was actually a dryopithecine. However, it is probably more closely related to the Ponginae.^[5]^[6] Some researchers consider O. macedoniensis to be the last common ancestor of humans (hominins) and the other apes,^[7] and a forerunner to australopithecines and humans,^[8] although this is very controversial and not widely accepted. It is true that O. macedoniensis shares derived features with some early hominins (such as the frontal sinus, a cavity in the forehead), but they are almost certainly not closely related species.^[9]

In 1984, British palaeontologists Peter Andrews and Lawrence B. Martin classified Graecopithecus and Ouranopithecus as synonyms (same taxon) and treated them as members of the genus Sivapithecus.^[10]^[11] However, comparative analysis showed that there is not enough data to support the synonymy.^[12]

When more O. macedoniensis fossils were discovered^[13] including part of the skull in the 1990s,^[14] it became apparent that O. macedoniensis and G. freybergi are distinct species. In the light of new data, in 1997, Australian palaeontologist David W. Cameron treated Graecopithecus as a valid genus based on taxonomic priority and renamed O. macedoniensis as Graecopithecus macedoniensis.^[15]^[16] However, better O. macedoniensis specimens were found^[17] including a new species Ouranopithecus turkae from Turkey^[18] that warranted separation of the genus.

In addition, a meticulous re-description of Graecopithecus specimens in 2017 further evidenced that Graecopithecus is more related to humans than to apes,^[19] while Ouranopithecus specimens have strict ape-like characters. Separate genus are therefore continued to be generally adopted.^[20]^[21]^[22]

References

^ de Bonis, Louis; Melentis, J (1977). "Les primates hominoides du Vallésien de Macédoine (Grèce). Étude de la machoire inférieure". Geobios. 10 (6): 849–855. Bibcode:1977Geobi..10..849D. doi:10.1016/s0016-6995(77)80081-8.
^ ^a ^b Gulec, Erksin S.; et al. (2007). "A new great ape from the lower Miocene of Turkey". Anthropological Science. 115 (2): 153–158. doi:10.1537/ase.070501.
^ de Bonis, Louis; Melentis, Jean (1977). "Les primates hominoides du Vallésien de Macédoine (Grèce). Étude de la machoire inférieure". Geobios. 10 (6): 849–885. Bibcode:1977Geobi..10..849D. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(77)80081-8.
^ Martin, L.B.; Andrews, P. (1984). "The phyletic position of Graecopithecus freybergi Koenigswald". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 69: 25–40.
^ Alba, D.M.; Fortuny, J.; Moya-Sola, S.; et al. (2010). "Enamel thickness in the middle Miocene great apes Anoiapithecus, Picrolapithecus and Dryopithecus". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 277 (1691): 2237–2245. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0218. PMC 2880156. PMID 20335211.
^ Begun, David R. (2005). "Relations among great apes and humans: New interpretations based on the fossil great ape Dryopithecus". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 37: 11–63. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330370604.
^ de Bonis, Louis; et al. (1990). "New hominoid skull material from the late Miocene of Macedonia in Northern Greece". Nature. 345 (6277): 712–4. Bibcode:1990Natur.345..712D. doi:10.1038/345712a0. PMID 2193230. S2CID 4259387.
^ de Bonis, Louis; Koufos, George D. (2004). "Ouranopithecus and dating the splitting of extant hominoids". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 3 (4): 257–264. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2004.04.002.
^ de Bonis, Louis; et al. (1981). "Dental metric variation in early Hominids comparison between Australopithecus afarensis and Ouranopithecus macedoniensis". Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. Serie III Sciences de la Vie. 292: 263–266.
^ Martin, L.B.; Andrews, P. (1984). "The phyletic position of Graecopithecus freybergi Koenigswald". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 69: 25–40.
^ Andrews, Martin L. (1984). "The phylogenetic position of Graeceopithecus freybergi Koenigswald". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 69: 25–40.
^ Koufos, George D.; de Bonis, Louis (2005). "The late Miocene Hominoids Ouranopithecus and Graeceopithecus. Implications about their relationships and taxonomy". Annales de Paléontologie. 91 (3): 227–240. Bibcode:2005AnPal..91..227K. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2005.05.001.
^ Koufos, G. D. (1993). "Mandible of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (Hominidae, Primates) from a new late miocene locality of Macedonia (Greece)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 91 (2): 225–234. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330910208. PMID 8317563.
^ de Bonis, L.; Bouvrain, G.; Geraads, D.; Koufos, G. (1990). "New hominid skull material from the late Miocene of Macedonia in northern Greece". Nature. 345 (6277): 712–714. Bibcode:1990Natur.345..712D. doi:10.1038/345712a0. PMID 2193230. S2CID 4259387.
^ Cameron, David W. (1997). "The taxonomic status of Graecopithecus". Primates. 38 (3): 293–302. doi:10.1007/BF02381616. S2CID 28982498.
^ Cameron, D. W. (1997). "A revised systematic scheme for the Eurasian Miocene fossil Hominidae". Journal of Human Evolution. 33 (4): 449–477. Bibcode:1997JHumE..33..449C. doi:10.1006/jhev.1997.0145. PMID 9361253.
^ Ioannidou, Melania; Koufos, George D.; de Bonis, Louis; Harvati, Katerina (2019). "A new three-dimensional geometric morphometrics analysis of the Ouranopithecus macedoniensis cranium (Late Miocene, Central Macedonia, Greece)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 170 (2): 295–307. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23900. PMID 31339568. S2CID 198194561.
^ Güleç, Erksin Savas; Sevim, Ayla; Pehlevan, Cesur; Kaya, Ferhat (2007). "A new great ape from the late Miocene of Turkey". Anthropological Science. 115 (2): 153–158. doi:10.1537/ase.070501. ISSN 0918-7960.
^ Fuss, Jochen; Spassov, Nikolai; Begun, David R.; Böhme, Madelaine (2017). "Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe". PLOS ONE. 12 (5): e0177127. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1277127F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177127. PMC 5439669. PMID 28531170.
^ Andrews, Peter (2020). "Last Common Ancestor of Apes and Humans: Morphology and Environment". Folia Primatologica. 91 (2): 122–148. doi:10.1159/000501557. PMID 31533109. S2CID 202687516.
^ Gilbert, Christopher C.; Pugh, Kelsey D.; Fleagle, John G. (2020), Prasad, Guntupalli V.R.; Patnaik, Rajeev (eds.), "Dispersal of Miocene Hominoids (and Pliopithecoids) from Africa to Eurasia in Light of Changing Tectonics and Climate", Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics: New Perspectives on Post-Gondwana Break-up–A Tribute to Ashok Sahni, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 393–412, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_17, ISBN 978-3-030-49753-8, S2CID 229622942, retrieved 2021-11-16
^ Almécija, Sergio; Hammond, Ashley S.; Thompson, Nathan E.; Pugh, Kelsey D.; Moyà-Solà, Salvador; Alba, David M. (2021). "Fossil apes and human evolution". Science. 372 (6542): eabb4363. doi:10.1126/science.abb4363. PMID 33958446. S2CID 233872889.