EXTINCT APES 285 



rare African ape described by Giraud Elliot as the pseudogorilla, 

 but the remains of a species of chimpanzee and of an orang have 

 been recovered from the Lower Pliocene of India. This fact 

 alone is impressive enough, but the higher apes as a group are 

 much older than the chimpanzee. Several great apes lived in 

 Europe during the Middle and Late Miocene and during the 

 Pliocene. The best-known genus is of course that famous 

 animal Dryopithecus, which is known from jaws discovered in 

 the Middle Miocene of France, and from another mandible, or 

 rather one ramus of a mandible, found recently in the Upper 

 Miocene, near Lerida, in Catalonia. This last specimen has 

 just been described and figured by Prof. Vidal, 1 of Barcelona. 

 These specimens are massive jaws, resembling those of the 

 chimpanzee, but slightly more primitive in various details. 

 Isolated teeth have also been found, proving that Dryopithecus 

 survived until the Early Pliocene. An imperfect humerus, of 

 slender form, was discovered in the same stratum as the French 

 jaws, and has naturally been associated with Dryopithecus. The 

 arm-bone is more slender than one would expect in the owner 

 of the jaws. It is usual in the Primates to find that great bony 

 development in one part implies a similar development in all 

 parts — witness, the gorilla and Neandertal man. 



Perhaps the most striking of all simian fossils is a solitary 

 femur, found in the Lower Pliocene at Eppelsheim, in Hesse 

 Darmstadt. This bone, which is wonderfully well preserved, is 

 longer than the corresponding structure of the gorilla, but is 

 much more slender and 'more man-like in form. This bone, 

 too, has been attributed by some writers to Dryopithecus, but 

 in all the circumstances it is safer to retain the distinct generic 

 name, Paidopithex. The German femur is ,much longer than 

 the French humerus, but no doubt that is because it belonged 

 to a larger animal — whether really a species of Dryopithecus 

 or not. Paidopithex was certainly a taller creature than the 

 chimpanzee, and was much lighter and more man-like in build 

 than any of the great apes now living. Two other genera, 

 Griphopithecus and Anthropodus, have been established to include 

 certain teeth found in the Miocene and Pliocene of Austria and 

 Germany. These are the only known fossils of the greater 



1 " Nota sobre la presencia del Dryopithecus en el mioceno superior del 

 Pirineo Catalan." In the Boletin de la Real Sociedad espanola de Historia natural 

 for December 19 13. 



