Griphopithecus

Credit: Julio Lacerda.

*Griphopithecus* is an extinct genus of kenyapith homoid that lived in Turkey, Austria and Slovakia during the Miocene.

## History

*G. suessi* was named by Abel (1902), and taxonomy since has been swaying. Nonetheless, it is considered one of the first hominoids in the fossil record. As of 2003, only five teeth were collected as *G. suessi*, all known from the Sandberg locality near Devínska Nová Ves (Bratislava, Slovakia).

## Description

It alongside several early australopiths, dryopiths and *Kenyapithecus* are often considered contenders as the ancestor of the human lineage. A cf. *Griphopithecus* tooth is recorded from Engelswies, though they believe it is a new, closely-related genus and that the tooth is not a suitable holotype. 74 primary teeth from Paşalar attribuatble to this genus are known, being one of the largest deciduous tooth samples in fossil apes. A lingual pillars on the di(1)s identify the permanents. They all share characters that suggest attribution to a single species, *G. alpani*. However, there seem to be two taxa in the primaries. Wear patterns were used to determine age. There are few juveniles, suggesting high mortality in those 3-5 years old, probably due to weaning-related stress. There may be higher sexual dimorphism in the deciduous teeth than in *Pan*, mirroring the condition of the permanents. *Griphopithecus* is often classed a stem-hominoid, and *Griphopithecus* material shows hominoid locomotor anatomy during the Middle Miocene. *G. suessi* is known from Miocene Austria and Slovakia, approximately 13.65-11.1 million years ago. *G. suessi* is known from a single lower molar, three other disarticulated teeth and two fragmented postcrania.

## Classification

The holotype of *G. alpani* is a mandible, MTA 2253, from Çandlr. Two species, *Griphopithecus darwini* and *G. suessi* have been proposed, with the former named from a larger specimen and the latter from a smaller specimen. They, however, can be combined as *G. suessi*. Remane (1921) believes that *G. darwini* takes priority, but this is not agreed upon. Lewis (1934) transferred the larger specimen to *Sivapithecus darwini* based on similarities with the Siwalik specimens (mostly enamel thickness). Tekkaya (1974) assigned MTA 2253 to *Sivapithecus alpani*, which was moved into *Griphopithecus* by Andrews et al. (1996) after many heavy revisions; during those years, the specimen was compared to Plio-Pleistocene hominids. In 1974, Tekkaya and Andrews split the hypodigm into *S. alpani* and *Ramapithecus alpani*. In 1979, the mandible was assigned *R. wickeri* by Szalay and Delson. *S. alpani* was synonymized with *S. darwini* by Alpagut et al. (1990). This debate ended in 1996, and is now known as *G. alpani*.

## Paleobiology

In Paşalar, *G. alpani* is known to have been contemporaries with *Kenyapithecus kizili*, both clearly distinct taxa, having non-permanent sympatry. This site represents a sort of snapshot death assemblage likely caused by debris flow. However, many more *G. alpani* are known from this locality than the latter, amounting to 74 adult individuals of various ages and many infants and juveniles. Many *G. alpani* I1 teeth bear hypoplasias but do not suggest a consistent pattern as does *Kenyapithecus*. This suggests that the infants in both taxa were not born in the same year, and that they were not affected by the same physiological response. *G. alpani* appears to have been a resident species, while the other, though probably living very close to this vicinity, were periodic inhabitants of Paşalar. It was speculated that these two species' may have overlapping ranges elsewhere, but it is stated that this cannot be confirmed at the present.

## Synonyms

* *Sivapithecus darwini*
* *Sivapithecus darwini*
* *Ramapithecus alpani*
* *G. darwini*
* *Dryopithecus darwini*
* *Austriacopithecus*

## Paleoecology

Sandberg is a transgressive nearshore marine sedimentary sequence that dates to the Upper Badenian. The fauna is diverse and corresponds with the earliest MN6 in terms of European terrestrial mammal biochronology. This would make it one of the earliest known dryopiths in Europe.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://bioone.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-museum-of-natural-history/volume-2003/issue-279/0003-0090(2003)279%3C0625:C%3E2.0.CO;2/Chapter-24/10.1206/0003-0090(2003)279%3C0625:C%3E2.0.CO;2.short
2. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution/Background-and-beginnings-in-the-Miocene#ref867700
3. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248401904956
4. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18395121/
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griphopithecus\_suessi
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griphopithecus
7. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Begun/publication/287535021\_Functional\_morphology\_and\_affinities\_of\_the\_hominoid\_mandible\_from\_Candir/links/58c80c8645851591df306db1/Functional-morphology-and-affinities-of-the-hominoid-mandible-from-Candir.pdf
8. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248407001728