_Oreopithecus_, Gervais, C. R., p. 1223, lxxiv. (1872); Ristori, Boll.
Com. Geol. (3), i., pp. 178, 226, pls. vii., viii. (1890); Zittel, Handb.
Palæont, iv., p. 705 (1893).
The characters which distinguish this genus are the incisors, which are
chisel-shaped above and scoop-shaped below; the large upper and lower
canine teeth; the upper pre-molars, which approach in shape to the molars,
with the outer cusps higher than the inner, and the inner one strong; the
upper molars with two pairs of opposite conical cusps, separated by a
longitudinal furrow, and with a strong cingulum; the posterior upper molar
smaller than the median; the lower molars smaller than the upper, with two
pairs of cusps, and a fifth on their hind border, which in the hindmost
tooth is developed into a strong talon. The face is short, and the chin
rounded. OREOPITHECUS BAMBOLII, Gervais, is the best known species, and was
obtained from the Mid-Miocene lignites of Monte Bamboli, {213}Casteani, and
Monte Massi, in Tuscany. It has been placed by some Palæontologists among
the _Simiidæ_, and by others in the _Cercopithecidæ_. According to Ristori,
the under jaw shows its alliance with _Papio_ and _Cercopithecus_; while
the upper jaw more resembles the Anthropoid Apes. It is the largest known
fossil Ape, and is excelled in strength only by _Dryopithecus_, Zittel.
GENUS MACACUS (_suprà_, p. 1).
Species belonging to this still living genus, occurred in Asia and in
Europe in the age--the Pliocene--which immediately preceded the Great Ice
age, as well as in the Pleistocene epoch itself. MACACUS SIVALENSIS is the
oldest fossil of the genus, and was described by Mr. Lydekker from the
Sivalik beds of the Punjaub. M. PRISCUS is known from the Pliocene of
Montpellier, in France; M. FLORENTINUS, Cocchi (the same as _Aulaxinuus
florentinus_ of Cocchi, and _M. ausonianus_ of Forsyth Major), from the
Upper Pliocene beds in the valley of the Arno. M. SUEVICUS (Hedinger),
which has been described from a well-preserved palate-bone, having all the
molar, and two of the pre-molar teeth present, was found at Heppenlochs, in
Würtemberg. M. TRARENSIS (Pomel) is found in Algeria, in beds of the Ice
age; while, in holes on the rock of Gibraltar, remains of the same species
as is now living there--_M. inuus_--were discovered by Mr. Calderon in
1879. From another crevasse at Monstaines, in the Haute Garonne, M. Harlé
obtained a fragment of a lower jaw of a species of _Macacus_, associated
with the bones of Mammals of the Ice age. (_Zittel._) Of the same antiquity
is a jaw found, according to Mr. Lydekker, near the village of Grays, in
Essex, a fact which indicates a very great difference in the climate of
that part of England from that of the present day.
{214}GENUS DOLICHOPITHECUS.
_Dolichopithecus_, Depéret, Mem. Soc. Geol. Fr., Palæont., i., p. 11
(1890); Zittel, Handb. Palæont., iv., p. 707 (1893).
Allied to _Semnopithecus_, but having the muzzle longer and the limbs
shorter and stouter. The genus has been based on three crania, several
teeth, and a number of the bones of the skeleton, belonging to the species
DOLICHOPITHECUS RUSCINENSIS, Depéret, from the Pliocene strata of
Perpignan, in France. (_Zittel._)