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Primitive hominoids |
Dryopithecus Fossils about 12 to 9 million years old have been found in Africa, Asia, and Europe (looking very similar to those of Sivapithecus). Dryopithecus had a semi-upright posture and is generally believed to be ancestral to modern apes and man. It is believed to have evolved in the Rift Valley in East Africa. Some groups followed the widescale migration of animals north out of Africa, where they spread to inhabit areas of Europe and Asia. The Middle Miocene saw a generally wetter and warmer climate in Europe, which made it an ideal home. Hominoids spread from Asia Minor to Iberia and as far north as modern Paris. Dryopithecus was 60cm long and, despite it having the ability to walk upright, it moved mostly on four legs. However, it was not a knuckle walker like the apes. Dryopithecus was a tree-dwelling animal and from its habitat it got its food: forest berries and fruits. Its features do not necessarily show that Dryopithecus was ancestral to African apes and humans. Nevertheless, they illustrate the presence of almost every component of the ape anatomy in the Late Miocene fossils which have been discovered, which set the stage for the later rise of the hominids. Dryopithecus, along with a range of other hominoids, became extinct towards the end of the Late Miocene around 7-5 million years ago, as conditions and the climate changed rapidly.
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Dryopithecus skull © Laboratório de Estudos Evolutivos Humanos. Original text copyright © P L Kessler and the History Files. An original feature for the History Files. Go back return home, or go to Hominid Chronology Part 1. |