Oreopithecus

Oreopithecus (from the Greek ὄρος, and πίθηκος, , meaning "hill-ape") is an extinct genus of hominoid primate from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed nine to seven million years ago in the Tusco-Sardinian area when this region was an isolated island in a chain of islands stretching from central Europe to northern Africa in what was becoming the Mediterranean Sea. Oreopithecus was one of many European immigrants that settled this area in the Vallesian–Turolian transition and one of few hominoids, together with Sivapithecus in Asia, to survive the so-called Vallesian Crisis. To date, dozens of individuals have been discovered at the Tuscan localities of Montebamboli, Montemassi, Casteani, Ribolla, and, most notably, in the fossil-rich lignite mine in the Baccinello Basin, making it one of the best-represented fossil apes. Oreopithecus bambolii was first described by French paleontologist Paul Gervais in 1872, after the discovery of a juvenile mandible by Professor Igino Cocchi in a lignite mine at Montebamboli in 1862. In 1890, nearly a dozen new specimens were reported by Guiseppe Ristori, among them an upper jaw. In 1898, a left lower jaw was described by Felice Ottolenghi. In 1907, Giuseppe Merciai reported four maxillae and a lower jaw from the Grosseto mine at Ribolla. During this period there was no consensus whether Oreopithecus was a monkey or an ape. From 1949 onwards, Swiss paleontologist Johannes Hürzeler began to restudy the known material. In 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1958 he claimed Oreopithecus were a true hominin—based on its premolars, short jaws and reduced canines, at the time considered diagnostic of the hominin family. This hypothesis was immediately hotly discussed by his fellow palaeontologists. When he toured the world to give a series of lectures, his views generated an enormous press coverage, often being presented as a challenge to the Darwinian descent of man from apes.