Samburupithecus Temporal range:
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Samburupithecus kiptalami fossils, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Superfamily: | Hominoidea |
Family: | incertae sedis |
Genus: | †Samburupithecus Ishida & Pickford 1997 |
Species: | †S. kiptalami
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Binomial name | |
†Samburupithecus kiptalami |
Samburupithecus is an extinct primate that lived in Kenya during the middle to late Miocene. The one species in this genus, Samburupithecus kiptalami, is known only from a maxilla fragment dated to 9.5 million years ago discovered in 1982[1] and formally described by Ishida & Pickford 1997.[2] The type specimen KNM-SH 8531 was discovered by the Joint Japan-Kenya Expedition at the SH22 fossil site in the Samburu District,[1] a locality where several other researchers found no ape fossils.[3]
Samburupithecus lived during the so-called "African ape gap" 14 to 7 Ma, a period from which very few hominoid fossils have been found in Africa until relatively recently.[3] This apparent gap, however, is now populated by a diversity of apes such as Nakalipithecus, Chororapithecus abyssinicus,[3] Otavipithecus,[4] and Nacholapithecus.[5]