Proconsul (mammal): Difference between revisions

'''''Proconsul''''' is an [[extinct]] [[genus]] of [[primate]]s that existed from 21 to 1417 million years ago during the [[Miocene]] epoch. [[Fossil]] remains are present in Eastern [[Eastern Africa]], including [[Kenya]] and [[Uganda]]. Four species have been classified to date: [[Proconsul africanus|''P. africanus'']], ''P. gitongai'', ''[[Proconsul major|P. major]]'' and ''P. meswae''. The four species differ mainly in body size. Environmental reconstructions for the Early Miocene ''Proconsul'' sites are still tentative and range from forested environments to more open, arid grasslands.

''Proconsul's'' monkey-like features include [[Quadrupedalism#Pronograde posture|pronograde posturesposture]], indicated by a long flexible back, curved metacarpals, and an above-branch [[arboreal]] quadrupedal positional repertoire. The primary feature linking ''Proconsul'' with extant apes is its lack of a tail; other "ape-like" features include its enhanced grasping capabilities, stabilized elbow joint and facial structure. ''Proconsul'' could not [[Suspensory behavior|hang effortlessly]] from tree branches like gibbons and other nonhuman apes do today.

The first specimen, a partial jaw discovered in 1909 by a gold prospector at [[Koru, Kenya|Koru]], near [[Kisumu]] in western Kenya, was also the oldest fossil hominoid known until recently, and the first fossil mammal ever found in sub-Saharan Africa. The name, ''Proconsul'', was devised by Arthur Hopwood in 1933 and means "before Consul"; – the name of a famous captive chimpchimpanzee in London.<ref name="Morell">{{Harvnb|Morell|1996| p=130}}</ref> At the time Consul was being used as a circus name for performing chimpanzees. The [[Folies Bergère]] of 1903 in [[Paris]] had a popular performing [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]] named Consul, and so did the [[Belle Vue ZooZoological Gardens]] in [[Manchester]], England, in 1894. On the latter's death in that year [[Ben Brierley]] wrote a commemorative poem wondering where the "[[Transitional fossil|Missing Link]]" between chimpanzees and men was.<ref>{{Harvnb|Walker|Shipman|2005}}</ref>

Other fossils discovered later were initially classified as ''africanus'' and subsequently reclassified; that is, the total pool of fossils originally considered ''africanus'' was "split" and the fragments "lumped" with other finds to create a new species. For example, [[Mary Leakey]]'s famous find of 1948 began as ''africanus'' and was split from it to be lumped with Thomas Whitworth's finds of 1951 as ''heseloni'' by [[Alan Walker (anthropologist)|Alan Walker]] in 1993. This process creates some confusion for the public, which is told that ''africanus'' became ''heseloni''. The finds from Koru and Songhor are still considered ''africanus''. Four species are still defined even though many fossils have jumped species.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tuttle|2006| loc=''Taxonomic Shuffles, Ancestors, and Functional Interpretations: 1960–1999'', p. 17}}</ref>

The species ''Proconsul heseloni'' and ''P. nyanzae'' have been reclassified in the new genus ''[[Ekembo]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McNulty|first1=Kieran P.|last2=Begun|first2=David R.|last3=Kelley|first3=Jay|last4=Manthi|first4=Fredrick K.|last5=Mbua|first5=Emma N.|date=2015|title=A systematic revision of Proconsul with the description of a new genus of early Miocene hominoid|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=84|pages=42–61|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.009|pmid=25962549|doi-access=free|hdl=2286/R.I.35702|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DauBuaRsJl0C&lpgpg=PA3