Ramapithecus

Ramapithecus , an extinct group of primates that lived from about 12 to 14 million years ago, for a time regarded as a possible ancestor of Australopithecus and, therefore, of modern humans. Fossils of Ramapithecus were discovered in N India and in E Africa, beginning in 1932. Although it was generally an apelike creature, Ramapithecus was considered a possible human ancestor on the basis of the reconstructed jaw and dental characteristics of fragmentary fossils. A complete jaw discovered in 1976 was clearly nonhominid, however, and Ramapithecus is now regarded by many as a member of Sivapithecus, a genus considered to be an ancestor of the orangutan . See also human evolution .

Ramapithecus a fossil anthropoid ape of the Miocene epoch, known from remains found in SW Asia and East Africa, and probably ancestral to the orang-utan; it is named from Rama + Greek pithēkos ‘ape’.

Ramapithecus A middle to late Miocene ape, known from fragmentary fossils from E. Africa, south-eastern Europe, and northern India and Pakistan, dating from 14–10 Ma ago, and very similar to the E. African Kenyapithecus. Ramapithecus was regarded by many as transitional between the true Miocene apes (the Dryopithecinae) and the later Hominidae; if this were so, then the human and ape lines must have diverged 15–25 Ma ago, prior to the late Miocene. More recent evidence, however, suggests that Ramapithecus and the related or identical Sivapithecus are nearer to the evolutionary line that led to the orang-utan.