Alpagut B, Andrews P, Fortelius M, Kappelman J, Temizsoy I, Celebi H, Lindsay W
Paleoantropoloji, Ankara Universitesi, Ankara, Turkey.
Nature. 1996 Jul 25;382(6589):349-51. doi: 10.1038/382349a0.
Hominoid fossils from the Middle and Late Miocene are exceedingly rare, yet such material is necessary for determining hominoid phylogeny. We report here the discovery of a fossil hominoid partial skull from the Upper Miocene Sinap Formation 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 framework 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 Pongo. 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.
中新世中晚期的类人猿化石极为罕见，但这类材料对于确定类人猿系统发育至关重要。我们在此报告，在土耳其中部上新世希纳普组发现了一具类人猿化石部分头骨，它是1800万至300万年前这一时期已知最完整的。我们的野外工作将类人猿化石产地置于一个精确测年的地质年代学和生物地层学框架内，这使得我们能够与其他类人猿化石进行详细比较。此前发现的更零碎的安卡拉古猿化石表明它与亚洲类人猿西瓦古猿和猩猩有亲缘关系。这个新的近乎完整的标本展现出面部、下颌和牙齿特征的组合，包括相对较窄的眶间区域、广泛的额窦和上颌窦、适度发育的眶上嵴、方形眼眶、粗壮的下颌体以及门齿异形，这些特征在任何现存或化石类人猿中都不匹配。这种特征组合似乎支持将其置于大猩猩和人类进化支的基干成员位置。
