''Cercopithecoides'' is an extinct genus of
colobine monkey from
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
which lived during the latest
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
to the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
period. There are several recognized species,
with the smallest close in size to some of the larger extant colobines, and males of the largest species weighed over .
The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
, ''Cercopithecoides williamsi'', was named by O. D. Mollett in 1947, based on a partial cranium and mandible of a male individual from
Makapansgat,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. It has since been found across many Pliocene and Pleistocene sites in South Africa, Angola, and Kenya.
The largest species, ''Cercopithecoides kimeui'', was named by
Meave Leakey
Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has ...
in 1982, based on
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s found in
Kenya
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and
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
.
[Meave Leakey : Extinct Large Colobines From the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Vol. 58, No. 2, 1982, pp. 153-172, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330580207]
References
Miocene primates
Pliocene primates
Pleistocene primates
Miocene mammals of Africa
Pliocene mammals of Africa
Pleistocene mammals of Africa
Old World monkeys
Fossil taxa described in 1947
{{paleo-primate-stub