de Bonis L, Bouvrain G, Geraads D, Koufos G
Laboratoire de Paléontologie des Vertébrés et Paléontologie humaine, UA CNRS 720, Université de Poitiers, France.
Nature. 1990 Jun 21;345(6277):712-4. doi: 10.1038/345712a0.
Miocene hominoid material is very scarce and has previously only been reported as cranial fragments in the Old World. Here we describe a new specimen of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, which consists of the right part of the face of an adult male with a portion of the frontal bone, a portion of the left part of the face and the maxilla with complete dentition except the right third molar. The characters of this specimen are not congruent with those of Sivapithecus and the pongids, but are more primitive and plesiomorphic for the recent hominid clade (Gorilla, Pan and Homo). The dental characters differ morphologically and metrically from those of the recent great apes and fit better with Australopithecus afarensis. Ouranopithecus now seems the best candidate forerunner of the Plio-pleistocene Homininae (Australopithecus and Homo). This specimen was discovered in September 1989, in the late Miocene deposits of central Macedonia (G.K., L. de B. and G.B.), and prepared by G.K. in Thessaloniki and G. Mouchelin in Poitiers. It comes from the new locality of Xirochori in the red sandstone of the Nea Messimbria formation. The fossil is the property of the University of Thessaloniki, Greece (catalogue number XIR-1).
中新世类人猿材料非常稀少，此前在旧大陆仅作为颅骨碎片被报道过。在此，我们描述了一种新的马其顿山猿标本，它由一名成年雄性个体面部右侧部分以及部分额骨、面部左侧部分和上颌骨组成，除右侧第三磨牙外，牙齿完整。该标本的特征与西瓦古猿和猩猩科动物的特征不一致，但对于最近的人科分支（大猩猩、黑猩猩和人类）来说更为原始且具有近祖特征。其牙齿特征在形态和测量上与现代大型猿类不同，与阿法南方古猿更为契合。马其顿山猿现在似乎是上新世 - 更新世人族（南方古猿和人类）的最佳候选祖先。该标本于1989年9月在马其顿中部的中新世晚期沉积物中被发现（G.K.、L. de B. 和G.B.），由G.K. 在塞萨洛尼基以及G. Mouchelin在普瓦捷进行了清理。它来自新梅辛布里亚组红砂岩中希罗乔里的新地点。该化石归希腊塞萨洛尼基大学所有（标本编号XIR - 1）。
