Pliobates Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Pliobates fossils and reconstruction | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Family: | † Pliopithecidae |
Subfamily: | † Crouzeliinae |
Genus: | †
Pliobates Alba et al. 2015 [1] |
Species: | †P. cataloniae
|
Binomial name | |
†Pliobates cataloniae Alba et al. 2015
[1]
|
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]
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]
Pliobates Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Pliobates fossils and reconstruction | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Family: | † Pliopithecidae |
Subfamily: | † Crouzeliinae |
Genus: | †
Pliobates Alba et al. 2015 [1] |
Species: | †P. cataloniae
|
Binomial name | |
†Pliobates cataloniae Alba et al. 2015
[1]
|
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]
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]