Dryopithecus
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 Jaw of Dryopithecus Fontani
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Conservation status: Fossil Miocene
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Dryopithecus was a genus of apes that lived in Eastern Africa during the Upper Miocene period, from 12 to 9 million years ago, and which could have been the evolutionary ancestor of modern man.
After evolving near the southern end of the African Rift Valley, it expanded throughout the African continent and got as far as Asia and Europe. It was 60 cm long and was probably a brachiator, similar to modern orangutans and gibbonss. It was not a knuckle walker, like the modern African apes (the gorillas and chimpanzees). Its face exhibited klinorhynchy, that is its face tilted downwards in profile.
Dryopithecus was a tree-dwelling animal and from its habitat it got its food, forest berries and fruits.
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