ANATOMICAL VARIABILITY AND SYSTEMATIC STATUS OF THE HOMINOIDS CURRENTLY ALLOCATED TO THE AFRICAN DRYOPITHECINAE

This paper examines the current systematic status of the Moroto II hom inoid from Uganda which was originally allocated to Proconsul major, t he Maboko large-bodied hominoid currently allocated to Kenyapithecus a fricanus, and the Saudi Arabian hominoid allocated to Heliopithecus le akeyi. It has recently been argued that the Moroto hominoid should be subsumed into Afropithecus. The same argument has been presented for t he Saudi Arabian hominoid Heliopithecus. The status of Heliopithecus a fricanus is still being debated. It is shown here that while the Morot o hominoid shares a number of derived characters with Afropithecus, it differs from this genus in a number of cranial and more importantly p ostcranial features. As such it represents a new genus, which may have evolved from an ancestral afropithecine stock. Heliopithecus is shown to be generically distinct from Afropithecus, although it shares with Afropithecus a number of derived characters. The Maboko hominoid tend s to be more similar anatomically to Afropithecus, Heliopithecus and t he Moroto hominoid as opposed to the type species of Kenyapithecus (K. wickeri) and so is also considered to represent a distinct genus. The se hominoids are shown to form a clade to the exclusion of Kenyapithec us and the extant African Hominidae. The origins of this clade appear to be in the Late Oligocene as members of it are close contemporaries of the Proconsulidae during the Early Miocene. This is further emphasi zed by the presence of some of the derived afropithecine characters in the newly recognised genus Kamoyapithecus from the Late Oligocene of East Africa, this may therefore represent an early representative of a n afropithecine clade.