Arney, Irisa

Benefit, Brenda

Mccrossin, Monte

Miller, Ellen

Nengo, Isaiah

Rae, Todd

Middle Miocene deposits at North Napudet, West Lake Turkana Basin, Kenya, aretentatively dated to less than 12.8 mya. A female canine, KNM-NP 23112, discovered at Napudet by the Koobi Fora Research Project in 1990, is thus the first hominoid recovered from African deposits dated between Fort Ternan /Maboko Bed 12 (14.7-13.7 mya) and the Chorora/Nakali/Samburu Formations (10.5 -9.5 mya). The absence of female hominoid lower canines from the later sites, however, limits comparisons of NP 23112 to other Miocene and extanthominoids. Mesiodistal and buccolingual dimensions of NP 23112 overlap with females of Proconsul sp. (MW 160), Kenyapithecus africanus (MB 5 and 24767), K. wickeri (FT 3636), Hispanopithecus (ISP 18), and Pan paniscus. NP 23112 is smaller than female canines of Pan troglodytes, moderately larger than other female specimens of K. africanus, K. wickeri, and Hispanopithecus, and significantly larger than female canines of hylobatids, Dendropithecus, Mabokopithecus and Oreopithecus. The Napudet canine morphology is most consistent with Kenyapithecus. It differs from Mabokopithecus (and maleNacholapithecus) in having a straight and fairly vertical rather than recurved distolingual marginal ridge. Its buccal profile resembles K. africanus (MB 35979), and its low lingual cingulum is higher mesially than distally, as in K. africanus and unlike K. wickeri (FT 3318). The lingual cingulum, however, is discontinuousbetween its mesial and distal ends, as in FT 3318, and unlike the continuous cingulum of MB 5. The generic attribution of the Napudet canine awaits further fossils.Research sponsored by the Leakey Foundation,National Geographic Society, Foothill-De AnzaFoundation and the Primate Society of GreatBritain

A large-bodied ape canine from middle Miocene Napudet deposits in the Turkana Basin, Kenya

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