Ramapithecus: 14 Ramapithecus

14 Ramapithecus : Phylogenetic and Taxonomic status Ms. Sangeeta Dey and Prof. A.K. Kapoor you can view video on Ramapithecus : Phylogenetic and Taxonomic status ' Shiva 's Ape') (syn: Ramapithecus ) is a genus of extinct apes. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.2 million years old [1] in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Sivalik Hills of the Indian subcontinent as well as in Kutch. Ramapithecus Late Miocene and early Pliocene ape, known from fragmentary fossils from E. Africa, south-eastern Europe, and northern India and Pakistan, dating from 14–10 Ma ago, and apparently identical or very similar to the E. African Kenyapithecus. Ramapithecus is regarded by many as transitional between the true Miocene apes (the Dryopithecinae) and the later Hominidae. If this is so, then the human and ape lines diverged prior to the late Miocene, 15–25 Ma ago. More recent evidence ... With its jaw fragments discovered in India and Kenya, scientists once believed Ramapithecus was a bipedal ape walking the path toward Homo sapiens. For decades, it appeared in textbooks and documentaries as “the missing link” between apes and humans. But as science evolved, so did the story.