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Maboko Island
Maboko Island is a small island lying in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, in Nyanza Province of western Kenya. It is about 1.8 km long by 1 km wide. It is an important Middle Miocene paleontological site with fossiliferous deposits that were discovered in the 1930s. The age of the deposits is estimated to be , and they are especially important for the abundance of primate fossils they contain. Excavations Miocene fossils in the fluvial deposits of Maboko was first discovered by Archdeacon W.E. Owen in 1933, who started an excavation later that year which yielded a lot of vertebrate fossils. Owen's excavations continued the following two years supervised by Donald Gordon MacInnes. Then few expeditions visited the island before MacInnes returned together with Louis Leakey in 1947. These excavations resulted in a large number of craniodental (crania and teeth) remains of a medium seized cercopithecoid monkey and cranial and postcranial remains of a large anthropoid ape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winam Gulf
Winam Gulf is a significant extension of northeastern Lake Victoria into western Kenya. Formerly known as Kavirondo Gulf, Nyanza Gulf, and Lake Nyanza Gulf, it is a shallow inlet and is connected to the main lake by Rusinga Channel ( wide), which is partly masked from the main body of the lake by islands. The port of Kisumu, Kenya's third-largest city, stands on its northeastern shore. It has an average width of extends for from Kisumu to the channel. Significant bays in the gulf include Naya Bay, Nyakach Bay, Osodo Bay, Kendu Bay, Homa Bay, Ruri Bay, Mirunda Bay, Asembo Bay, and Olambwe Bay. Islands in the gulf include Maboko, Rusinga, and Ndere Island Ndere Island is a small island () in Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria in Kenya. It was gazetted as the Ndere Island National Reserve in November 1986 and has since that time been uninhabited. ''Ndere'' means "meeting place" in Dholuo. According to Lu ...s. References External links Topographic map sheet ''Kisumu'' {{co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sivapithecus
''Sivapithecus'' () (syn: ''Ramapithecus)'' is a genus of extinct apes. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.2 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ... of the Indian subcontinent as well as in Kutch. Any one of the species in this genus may have been the ancestor to the modern orangutans. Some early discoveries were given the separate names ''Ramapithecus'' (Rama's Ape) and ''Bramapithecus'' (Brahma's Ape), and were thought to be possible ancestors of humans. Discovery The first incomplete specimens of ''Sivapithecus'' were found in northern India in the late 19th century. Another find was made in Nepal on the bank of the Tinau River situated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalohyrax
''Megalohyrax'' is an extinct hyrax-grouped genus of herbivorous mammal that lived during the Miocene, Oligocene, and Eocene, about 55-11 million years ago. Its fossils have been found in Africa and in Asia Minor. Description This animal was very different from the current hyraxes and much larger, generally reaching the size of a tapir and sometimes exceeding in length. The legs were strong and the body very massive. The skull was long and low, unlike that of today's hyraxes, and could reach in length. Length of upper premolars and molars is and , respectively. The dental formula of ''Megalohyrax'' was composed of three incisors, one canine, four premolars and three molars. It likely had an eustachian tube. Classification and habitats It was first described by Andrews in 1903. The type species is ''Megalohyrax eocaenus'', was found in the El Fayum area in Egypt. Other fossils attributed to this kind have been found in Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. See also * ''Titanohyrax'' * '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyrax
Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Typically, they measure between long and weigh between . They are superficially similar to pikas and marmots, but are more closely related to elephants and sea cows. Hyraxes have a life span from 9 to 14 years. Five extant species are recognised: the rock hyrax (''Procavia capensis'') and the yellow-spotted rock hyrax (''Heterohyrax brucei''), which both live on rock outcrops, including cliffs in Ethiopia and isolated granite outcrops called koppies in southern Africa; the western tree hyrax (''Dendrohyrax dorsalis''), southern tree hyrax (''D. arboreus''), and eastern tree hyrax (''D. validus''). Their distribution is limited to Africa, except for ''P. capensis'', which is also found in the Middle East. Characteristics Hyraxes retain or have redeveloped a number of primitive mammalian characteristics; in particular, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erinaceidae
Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyphla has been shown to be monophyletic; Soricomorpha is paraphyletic because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs. Erinaceidae contains the well-known hedgehogs (subfamily Erinaceinae) of Eurasia and Africa and the gymnures or moonrats (subfamily Galericinae) of South-east Asia. This family was once considered part of the order Insectivora, but that polyphyletic order is now considered defunct. Characteristics Erinaceids are generally shrew-like in form, with long snouts and short tails. They are, however, much larger than shrews, ranging from in body length and in weight, in the case of the short-tailed gymnure, up to and in the moonrat. All but one species have five toes in eac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia and no living species native to the Americas. However, the extinct genus ''Amphechinus'' was once present in North America. Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews (family Soricidae), with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and they have changed little over the last fifteen million years. Like many of the first mammals, they have adapted to a nocturnal way of life. Their spiny protection resembles that of porcupines, which are rodents, and echidnas, a type of monotreme. Etymology The name ''hedgehog'' came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English ''heyghoge'', from ''heyg'', ''hegge'' ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and ''hoge'', ''hogge'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blesmol
The blesmols, also known as mole-rats, or African mole-rats, are burrowing rodents of the family Bathyergidae. They represent a distinct evolution of a subterranean life among rodents much like the pocket gophers of North America, the tuco-tucos in South America, or the Spalacidae from Eurasia. Distribution Modern blesmols are found strictly in sub-Saharan Africa. Fossil forms are also restricted almost exclusively to Africa, although a few specimens of the Pleistocene species ''Cryptomys asiaticus'' have been found in Israel. Nowak (1999) also reports that †''Gypsorhychus'' has been found in fossil deposits of Mongolia. Anatomy Blesmols are somewhat mole-like animals with cylindrical bodies and short limbs. They range from in length, and from in weight, depending on the species. Blesmols, like many other fossorial mammals, have greatly reduced eyes and ear pinnae, a relatively short tail, loose skin, and (aside from the hairless naked mole rat) velvety fur. Blesmols ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micropithecus
''Micropithecus'' is an extinct genus of primates that lived in East Africa about 19 to 15 million years ago, during the early Miocene. The genus and its type species, ''Micropithecus clarki'', were first scientifically described in 1978.John G. Fleagle and Elwyn L. Simons: ''Micropithecus clarki, a small ape from the Miocene of Uganda.'' In: ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology.'' Vol. 49, No. 4, 1978, pp. 427-440, doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330490402 Naming The generic name, ''Micropithecus'', is derived from the Greek Words μικρός (ancient Greek pronounced ''mikrós'', "small") and πίθηκος (pronounced ''píthēkos'', "monkey"). ''Micropithecus'' thus means "small ape", referring to the fact that the fossils of this genus are among the smallest fossil apes discovered. History of description The holotype of both the genus and type species, ''Micropithecus clarki'', is an upper jaw, which is approximately 19 to 17 million years old, with largely preserved palate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenyapithecus
''Kenyapithecus wickeri'' is a fossil ape discovered by Louis Leakey in 1961 at a site called Fort Ternan in Kenya. The upper jaw and teeth were dated to 14 million years ago. One theory states that ''Kenyapithecus'' may be the common ancestor of all the great apes. More recent investigations suggest ''Kenyapithecus'' is more primitive than that and is only slightly more modern than ''Proconsul'', which is considered to be an ape. Evidence suggests that ''Kenyapithecus wickeri'' was one of the species that started a radiation of apes out of Africa. Morphology Impressed by ''Kenyapithecus''s modern-looking teeth, Leakey declared ''Kenyapithecus'' to be "a very early ancestor of man himself." ''Kenyapithecus'' possessed craniodental adaptations for hard object feeding including thicker molar enamel, and a large mandible, large premolars and upper incisors that are similar to those seen in living pitheciine monkeys. ''Kenyapithecus'' also possessed macaque-like limbs adapted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Pickford
Martin Pickford was lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and honorary affiliate at the Département Histoire de la Terre in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Muséum national d'Histoire. In 2001, Martin Pickford together with Brigitte Senut and their team discovered ''Orrorin tugenensis'', a hominid primate species dated between 5.8 and 6.2 million years ago and a potential ancestor of the genus ''Australopithecus''. Biographical details Pickford was born in 1943 in Wiltshire, England.Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz: Dr. Martin Pickford (Accessed Aug 2012) He is the 4th child of Austin Joseph Pickford and Eleanor Margery Pickford née Holman. The family moved to Kenya in 1946. He read for his first degree between 1967 and 1971 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Pilbeam
David Pilbeam (born 21 November 1940 in Brighton, Sussex, England) is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and curator of paleoanthropology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. Biography Pilbeam has produced numerous publications related to hominoid evolution since the mid-1960s, with some of his papers reprinted in later books. In the 1970s, he was a co-discoverer, in the Potwar Plateau of Pakistan, of a nearly complete skull subsequently described as belonging to ''Sivapithecus indicus'', an extinct Late Miocene great ape, on which he published several papers. In 2005, in honour of his 65th birthday, Pilbeams' students, colleagues, collaborators and friends assembled a collection to honour his work. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
