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(連續圖畫的第二張)

EVOLUTION UNDER WAY  ~25 million years

Proconsul was an early genus of primates that existed from 23 to 17 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, first in Kenya, and restricted to Africa. Four species have been classified to date ranging in size from 22-84 lbs (10–40 kg). They inhabited rainforests.

They had a mixture of Old World monkey and ape characteristics, so their placement in the ape superfamily Hominoidea is tentative; some scientists place Proconsul outside of Hominoidea, before the split of the apes and Old World monkeys. If Proconsul is not an ape, then it would be somewhat closely related to Aegyptopithecus.

Proconsul's monkey-like features include thin tooth enamel, a light build with a narrow chest and short forelimbs, curved metacarpals, long flexible back, and an arboreal quadrupedal lifestyle. Its ape-like features are its lack of a tail, large lateral supracondylar ridge, and a slightly larger brain relative to body size. All of these features suggest that it was a "leaper" like most monkeys today as apposed to a vertical climber like modern apes. (click to see all the article on Wikipedia)

演化進行中 ~25百萬年前

原康修爾猿是靈長類中早期的屬,存在於中新世,約23百萬年到17百萬年前,首現於肯亞,擴張範圍限於非洲。其下有四個物種,尺寸範圍為22-84(10-40公斤)。牠們居住在雨林中。

牠們同時擁有舊世界猴與猿的特徵,所以只是臨時將其定位於人猿總科,一些科學家將原康修爾猿排除於人猿總科,而是猿與舊世界猴演化分開之前的動物。如果原康修爾猿不是猿的話,那牠比較接近埃及猿。

原康修爾猿如猴子般的特徵,包含了薄的牙齒琺瑯質,輕盈的身體,有著較窄的胸部及短的前肢,彎曲的掌骨,長而具彈性的背部,以及以四足生活在樹上的生活方式。牠如猿般的特徵,包含了沒有尾巴,大的肱骨外側髁上嵴,以及相較於身體尺寸下較大的腦。所有特徵表明,牠如同現今大多數猴子,是一個跳躍者,並且像是現今的猿類,是個垂直攀爬者。

(維基連結:原康修爾猿)

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