''Dinopithecus'' ("terrible monkey") is an extinct genus of very large primates, closely related to

baboons Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon ...

, that lived during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epochs in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It was named by British paleontologist

Robert Broom Robert Broom Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African medical doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University ...

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

. The only species currently recognized is ''Dinopithecus ingens'', as ''D. quadratirostris'' has been reassigned to the genus ''Soromandrillus.'' It is known from several infilled cave sites in

, all of early Pleistocene age, including Skurweberg,

Swartkrans Swartkrans or Swartkranz is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a National heritage sites (South Africa), South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is ...

(Member 1), and

Sterkfontein Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for ''Strong Spring'') is a set of limestone caves of special interest in paleoanthropology located in Gauteng province, about northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Muldersdrift area close to the town of K ...

(Member 4 or 5, but probably member 4).

Description

''Dinopithecus ingens'' was approximately three to four times the size of the largest living baboons, with males averaging and females , based on estimates from the molar teeth. In some cases males were estimated to reach in maturity a weight of . The most distinguishing feature of the genus is its large size in comparison to other papionins. The only other papionin species to attain a similar size were '' Theropithecus brumpti'' and '' Theropithecus oswaldi''. These, however, are very different from ''Dinopithecus'' in their dental morphology. Overall, the skull is similar to that of modern baboons, except that it generally lacks the facial fossae (depressions on the sides of the muzzle and lower jaw) and maxillary ridges (ridges of bone that run along the upper sides of the snout). For these reasons, ''Dinopithecus'' is sometimes treated as a subgenus of '' Papio''.

Paleoecology

Most living papionins are omnivorous feeders that consume a wide range of readily digestible plant parts, especially fruits, as well as insects and other invertebrates, and small vertebrates. An analysis of the

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

s from samples of its

tooth enamel Tooth enamel is one of the four major Tissue (biology), tissues that make up the tooth in humans and many animals, including some species of fish. It makes up the normally visible part of the tooth, covering the Crown (tooth), crown. The other ...

found ''Dinopithecus'' to consume the smallest portion of grass and other savanna-based foods of any South African primate. Analysis of the microwear patterns on the molar teeth showed that they were similar to those of the living yellow baboon ('' Papio cynocephalus''), suggesting a broad and eclectic diet. A study of the adaptations of the molar teeth suggested that ''D. ingens'' ate a very high percentage of fruit and relatively few leaves. No bones of the limbs or other parts beyond the skulls and teeth have been attributed to ''Dinopithecus'', so it is impossible to know its mode of locomotion for certain. However, as a papionin of very large size, it most probably spent a significant amount of time on the ground and moved quadrupedally.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5278601, from2=Q107736475 Pliocene primates Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene primates Pleistocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric monkeys Monotypic prehistoric primate genera Taxa named by Robert Broom Fossil taxa described in 1937