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An overview of the geographic and chronologic distribution of west European cercopithecoids

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Human Evolution

Abstract

Four genera of fossil cercopithecoid monkeys have been recorded from Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits of West Europe: the subfamilyColobinae is represented byMesopithecus andDolichopithecus while the subfamilyCercopithecinae is represented byMacaca andParadolichopithecus.

Mesopithecus, Dolichopithecus andParadolichopithecus have not been recorded in “Cromerian” and younger faunas, indicating that they belonged to a more archaic biocoenosis. In contrast, the genusMacaca was apparently able to adapt to the new environment of the middle and late Pleistocene of Europe, being the only primate, along with man, to live in this region, perhaps until very recent times.

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  1. Dept. of Animal Biology, Lab. of Anthropology, Via Accademia Albertina 17, 10123, Torino, Italy

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Ardito, G., Mottura, A. An overview of the geographic and chronologic distribution of west European cercopithecoids. Hum. Evol. 2, 29–45 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02436529

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