Dionysopithecidae is an extinct family of fossil

catarrhines The parvorder Catarrhini , catarrhine monkeys, Old World anthropoids, or Old World monkeys, consisting of the Cercopithecoidea and apes (Hominoidea). In 1812, Geoffroy grouped those two groups together and established the name Catarrhini, "Old W ...

and the earliest-known and most primitive members of the

Pliopithecoidea Pliopithecoidea is an extinct superfamily of catarrhine primates that inhabited Asia and Europe during the Miocene. Although they were once a widespread and diverse group of primates, the pliopithecoids have no living descendants. History of d ...

superfamily, with fossils in Sihong in China dating to 18–17 million years ago for species '' Dionysopithecus shuangouensis'' and '' Platodontopithecus jianghuaiensis''. A single lower molar found in Ban San Klang in Thailand is similar to those found in Sihong but sufficiently different to be considered a different species, '' Dionysopithecus orientalis''. They are sometimes treated as a subfamily of Pliopithecidae as 'Dionysopithecinae'.

References

* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World page 434. Miocene primates of Asia Pliocene primates Miocene extinctions Prehistoric apes †Pliopithecidae Prehistoric mammal families {{paleo-primate-stub