Fossil Hominoid Vertebra from the Miocene of Uganda

Abstract

THE Miocene site of Moroto II in Karamoja, Uganda, was first described by Bishop and Whyte in 1962 (ref. 1). The only primate specimens so far recorded from this site are dental and cranial remains that have been assigned to Proconsul major, Le Gros Clark and Leakey^2,3. Among fragmentary specimens from Moroto II in the Uganda Museum, Kampala, eight can be shown to be part of the vertebral column of a chimpanzee-sized ape. Four of the fragments, although collected in different years, combine together to make an almost complete lumbar vertebra—the first recorded not only for the Proconsul group but for any dryopithecine. The specimens are: U.M.P.67.28—an almost complete middle lumbar vertebra; U.M.P.68.05—a badly eroded middle lumbar vertebral body; U.M.P.68.06—a last thoracic vertebral body; U.M.P.68.07—the laminae and base of spine of a lumbar vertebra; and U.M.P.68.08—the laminae and base of spine of a thoracic vertebra.