Pliobates cataloniae is a primate from 11.6 million years ago, during the Iberian Miocene.[1][2][3] Originally described as a species of stem-ape that was found to be the sister taxon to gibbons and great apes like humans,[1] it was subsequently reinterpreted as a non-ape catarrhine belonging to the group Crouzeliidae within the superfamily Pliopithecoidea on the basis of discovery of new dental remains with crouzeliid synapomorphies.[4]
Mosaic characteristics
Its anatomy is gibbon-like; prior to this discovery, it was assumed that the ancestral ape bauplan was robust like Proconsul.[5] This species has mosaic characteristics of primitive, monkey-like features and the more derived ape characteristics; however, even when originally described it wasn't interpreted as a direct ancestor of modern apes but rather a side-branch that retained the ancestral morphotype and was thus placed in its own family Pliobatidae.[6] Its subsequent placement within Pliopithecoidea indicates that it was convergent with apes in elbow and wrist morphology.[4]
