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A new specimen of Ankarapithecus meteai from the Sinap Formation of central Anatolia

Nature volume 382, pages 349–351 (1996)Cite this article

Abstract

HOMINOID fossils from the Middle and Late Miocene are exceedingly rare, yet such material is necessary for determining homi-noid phylogeny. We report here the discovery of a fossil hominoid partial skull from the Upper Miocene Sinap Formation1,2 of central Turkey that is the most complete known from the period of 18 to 3 Myr. Our fieldwork places the hominoid locality within a precisely dated geochronological and biostratigraphical framework3 that permits detailed comparisons with other fossil hominoids. Earlier discoveries of more fragmentary remains of Ankarapithecus meteai suggested affinities with the Asian hominoids Sivapithecus and Pongo4. This new and nearly complete specimen reveals a combination of facial, mandibular, and dental features including a relatively narrow interorbital region, extensive frontal and maxillary sinuses, moderately developed supraorbital tori, square orbits, robust mandibular corpus, and incisor heteromorphy that is not matched in any extant or fossil hominoid. This configuration of features seems to support its placement as a stem member of the great ape and human clade.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoantropoloji, Ankara Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey

    Berna Alpagut & Hürkan Çelebi

  2. Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Peter Andrews & William Lindsay

  3. Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, PO Box 11, FIN-00014, Finland

    Mikael Fortelius

  4. Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, 78712-1086, USA

    John Kappelman

  5. Anadolu Medenyetleri Müzesi, Ankara, Turkey

    Ilhan Temizsoy

Authors
  1. Berna Alpagut
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  2. Peter Andrews
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  3. Mikael Fortelius
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  4. John Kappelman
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  5. Ilhan Temizsoy
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  6. Hürkan Çelebi
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  7. William Lindsay
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Alpagut, B., Andrews, P., Fortelius, M. et al. A new specimen of Ankarapithecus meteai from the Sinap Formation of central Anatolia. Nature 382, 349–351 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/382349a0

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