New Fossil Great Ape Discovery

An ape possibly larger than any other from the Miocene but Gigantopithecus? The announcement of a new big ape, a breaking fossil find out of Turkey, is turning heads. Perhaps the day is growing closer for more finds of Gigantopithecus too?

The new fossil great ape discovery appears to be a species of Ouranopithecus, and thus related to the above species, Ouranopithecus macedoniensis.

A team from the departments of Anthropology at the University of Ankara, Ankara, Turkey, and the University of Yüzüncüyil, Department of Anthropology, The Faculty of Science and Letters, Van, Turkey has recovered a fossil ape (as a new species of Ouranopithecus) from the late Miocene locality of Corakyerler, Turkey. After some comparison of these specimens with other examples of Ouranopithecus as well as Orrorin, Sahelanthropus, Ardipithecus, and Australopithecus, the analysis has suggested that Ouranopithecus shows “substantial dentognathic parallelism with Australopithecus.” As a result, the discoverers do not consider these features of Ouranopithecus to indicate placement within the hominid (African ape-human) clade.

Abstract: An adult maxilla and partial mandibles of a hominoid primate recovered from the late Miocene locality of Çorakyerler (central Anatolia) are recognized as a new species of Ouranopithecus, one of the rare western Eurasian hominoids to have survived well into the late Miocene. This species is distinguished from its sister taxon, and likely ancestor Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, by a constellation of dentognathic features. The new species, in which the male postcanine dentition is larger than that of any other Miocene ape besides Gigantopithecus, is associated with evidence indicating an open, dry environment. Dental features of Ouranopithecus apparently evolved in parallel with later Australopithecus, and suggest that Ouranopithecus was adapted to a diet of tough/abrasive foods.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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