Amphipithecus

Amphipithecus Temporal range:
Case of mandible
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Infraorder:	Simiiformes
Family:	†Amphipithecidae
Genus:	†Amphipithecus Colbert, 1937
Species:	†A. mogaungensis
Binomial name
†Amphipithecus mogaungensis Colbert, 1937

Amphipithecus mogaungensis ("ape-like creature of Mogaung", derived from the Ancient Greek ἀμφί, amphi- meaning "around" and pithēkos, pithecus meaning "ape") was a primate that lived in Late Eocene Myanmar. Along with another primate Pondaungia cotteri, both are difficult to categorise within the Order Primates. What little has come to light suggests that both were well beyond the affinitites of Adapidae or Omomyidae. Often referred to as higher primates, Anthropoidea include humans, monkeys and apes. Deep mandibles and mandibular molars with low, broad crowns suggest they are both anthropoids. More material will need to surface to investigate what these primates are. The teeth also suggest that these were frugivore primates, with a body mass of 6–10 kilograms (13–22 lb).

Discovery

Class Portrait of Barnum Brown (1897): University of Kansas Yearbook

In early 1923, notable fossil prospector, Barnum Brown (famed for discovering the first T. rex skeleton) travelled with his wife Lilian Brown to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. Brown focused his fossil prospection along areas of Pondaung Sandstone. It was in the outskirts of Mogaung town that he identified a mandible with three teeth (Right). He did not recognise the significance of his find until 14 years later, when Edwin H. Colbert identified the fossil as a new species of primate and the earliest known anthropoid in the world.

References

• Ciochon (1985). "Fossil Ancestors of Burma".
• Fleagle (1998). Primate Evolution and Adaptation. Academic Press. ISBN 9780080492131.