Kenyapithecus wickeri

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about Kenyapithecus wickeri. For Kenyapithecus africanus, see Proconsul nyanzae.

Kenyapithecus wickeri
Fossil range: Miocene

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Superfamily:	Hominoidea
Family:	†Griphopithecidae
Genus:	†Kenyapithecus
Species:	K. wickeri

Binomial name

†Kenyapithecus wickeri
Leakey, 1962

Kenyapithecus wickeri was a fossil ape discovered by Louis Leakey in 1961 at a site called Fort Ternan in Kenya. The upper jaw and teeth were dated to 14 million years ago. One theory states that Kenyapithecus may be the common ancestor of all the great apes. More recent investigations suggest Kenyapithecus is more primitive than that and is only slightly more modern than when Proconsul is considered to be an ape.

Evidence suggests that Kenyapithecus wickeri was one of the species that started a radiation of apes out of Africa.

[edit] Morphology

Impressed by Kenyapithecus's modern-looking teeth, Leakey declared Kenyapithecus to be "a very early ancestor of man himself." (Science August 27 1999, Carl Zimmer)

Kenyapithecus possessed craniodental adaptations like those seen in living pitheciine monkeys for eating hard fruits and nuts. Kenyapithecus also possessed limb bones adapted for a knuckle-walking mode of semi-terrestrial locomotion. This could show that as humans evolved, they passed through a knuckle-walking phase.

Kenyapithecus wickeri has very distinct features, especially details in the canine teeth and is similar to modern apes.