A REVIEW OF THE GENUS DRYOPITHECUS (APES)
Abstract
The sample of Dryopithecus has been said at times to include the vast majority of fossil hominoids known from Europe, Asia and Africa (Gregory and Hellman 1926; Simons and Pilbeam 1965) or at least Europe and Africa (Szalay and Delson 1979). The sample of Dryopithecus in Europe has expanded recently due to new discoveries, especially in Spain and Hungary, while in East Africa the entire sample of Miocene hominoids has been removed from Dryopithecus (Andrews 1978). These changes give the sample of Dryopithecus a completely new character and make the reappraisal of this sample both timely and necessary.^ The goal of this research then is to review the sample of Dryopithecus and to compare it to Sivapithecus and to other samples from Europe, Asia and Africa attributed to Sivapithecus or other taxa generally considered to be of more modern aspect than Dryopithecus. The work includes a detailed description of a long neglected portion of the sample, the postcranial remains of Dryopithecus and other European Miocene hominoids, from Rudabanya, Eppelsheim, St. Gaudens and Klein Hadersdorf, and an overview of the craniodental anatomy of Dryopithecus. Cranial and postcranial anatomy together illuminate details of the paleobiology and the affinities of Dryopithecus that remain less clear when only certain anatomical complexes are analyzed.^ Based on this data, I define four species of Dryopithecus, including a new species from northern Spain. The bulk of the material is attributed to Dryopithecus brancoi, from Central and Eastern Europe, while Dryopithecus fontani, formerly thought to be more widespread, is restricted to France. Dryopithecus arises suddenly and outside the distribution of ancestral forms, which are known from the Sub-Paratethyan faunal province and from East Africa, and is quite distinct from these forms with little evidence of a transitional period. Dryopithecus is derived relative to all East African Miocene hominoids, including Kenyapithecus, in both cranial and postcranial anatomy. Autapomorphous characters distinguish Dryopithecus from other members of the clade that includes Dryopithecus, Sivapithecus and the great apes and humans. ^
Subject Area
Anthropology, Physical
Recommended Citation
DAVID RENE BEGUN,
"A REVIEW OF THE GENUS DRYOPITHECUS (APES)"
(January 1, 1987).
Dissertations available from ProQuest.
Paper AAI8714006.
http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI8714006