Parapresbytis
Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Cercopithecidae
Subfamily: Colobinae
Genus: †Parapresbytis
Kalmykov & Maschenco, 1992
Species:
†P. eohanuman
Binomial name
†Parapresbytis eohanuman
Borissoglebskaya, 1981

Parapresbytis is an extinct genus of colobine monkey that lived in northeast Asia during the Mid-Late Pliocene. It is represented by single species known as Parapresbytis eohanuman, whose remains have been found throughout the Transbaikal area.

Taxonomy

Parapresbytis eohanuman was once considered a species of Dolichopithecus, but was found to be distinct.[1] There is debate as to its exact position within Colobinae, with some researchers considering it an ancestor to certain Asian colobines such as snub-nosed monkeys, and others considering it a member of a primitive colobine radiation that includes Dolichopithecus and left no descendants.[2] Parapresbytis seems to display a mosiac of distinct features shared with different living Asian colobine species, making its placement uncertain.[3]

Description

Parapresbytis was a large monkey, with an ulnar comparable in size to a chacma baboon. It has been estimated to weigh in at over 30 kg (66 lb).[3] Despite its size, the elbow morphology of Parapresbytis indicates that it was a climber and thus it can be assumed that it lived a mostly arboreal lifestyle. This matches well with the palaeoclimate of Pliocene northeast Asia, which at the time when Parapresbytis was living, would have been covered in warm forests.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Naoko, E. (2007). "Distal humerus and ulna of Parapresbytis (Colobinae) from the Pliocene of Russia and Mongolia: phylogenetic and ecological implications based on elbow morphology". Anthropological Science. 115 (2): 107–117. doi:10.1537/ase.061008.
  2. ↑ Masanaru, Takai; Maschenko, Evgeny N. (2009). "Parapresbytis eohanuman: the northernmost colobine monkey from the Pliocene of Transbaikalia". Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University. 5: 1–14.
  3. 1 2 Fleagle, John G. (2013). Primate Adaptation and Evolution. Elsevier Science. p. 356. ISBN 9781483288505.
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