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Proconsul heseloni skull
Skull of Proconsul from Rusinga Island, Kenya (YPM cast; photo: Athena Review)
Proconsul hesoloni was a Miocene ape dating from 23-14 mya. The species, at first named Proconsul africanus, had been previously described by Hopwood in 1933. The Leakey expedition of 1947–1948 to Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria uncovered more species of Proconsul, including the first nearly complete skull, found by Mary Leakey in 1948. The skull (KNM-RU-7290), dated at about 16 mya, is now at the Kenya National Museum. In 1951 Whitworth found more Proconsul fossils on Rusinga. In 1992 Alan Walker grouped all Proconsul finds in the species of hesolini.
Proconsul was a fruit eater that partly resembled a chimpanzee, but had a flatter face, a larger size and probably a shorter, stiffer lower back. It weighed on average about 18 kg (40 lbs). The skull was round and smooth on top. Based on the cranium, this species had an external brain surface much like that of gibbons and cercopithecoid monkeys. Proconsul had a dental formula of 2.1.2.3 on both the upper and lower jaws. The molars had thin enamel, and the canines were sexually dimorphic.
The
hands were similar to those of a human, having not yet evolved into the
long-fingered, short-thumbed hooks of living apes. Rather than walking
on its knuckles, Proconsul likely continued to walk on its palms. Proconsul was seriously considered by the Leakeys to be a candidate for a common ancestor of humans and apes.
References:
Begun DR 2010. Miocene Hominids and the Origins of the African Apes and Humans. Annual Review of Anthropology 39:67-84
Hopwood AT 1933a. Miocene primates from British East Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Series 10), 11, 96-98.
Hopwood AT 1933b. Miocene primates from Kenya. Journal of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology 38:437–464.
Leakey,
M.D. 1948. "The discovery of the skull and associated mandible of a
Miocene Ape." The Archaeological News Letter 8, December 1948.
Walker, A. and P. Shipman 2005. The Ape in the Tree. Harvard University Press.
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