First record of a parapithecid primate from the Oligocene of Kenya

摘要

Recent excavations in northwestern Kenya have recovered a vertebrate fauna of late early or early late Oligocene age. Among the mammal remains, a fragmentary lower jaw and an isolated upper molar have been attributed to a small primate, Lokonepithecus manai gen. et sp. nov. Lokonepithecus is a primitive member of the Parapithecidae and possibly most closely related to Apidium from the Fayum. The new primate from Kenya is the youngest parapithecid known and its occurrence in the Oligocene of Kenya suggests that sub-Saharan Africa probably played a major role in the evolutionary history of several groups of mammals.