Question

The earliest and most primitive anthropoid ape during the Oligocene is called.
A. Parapithecus
B. Propliopithecus
C. Proconsul
D. Limnopithecus

Answer 1

Hint: (i) Apes continued for most of the time on the trees, only occasionally visiting the ground. The apes became larger than monkeys. They found it difficult to balance on the branches while walking on them like monkeys, so they started swinging from the branches with their arms. This mode of movement is called branchiation.
(ii) During the Oligocene epoch age, parapithecus fossils were found.

Complete Answer:
A. Parapithecus: (i) The earliest fossil believed to represent the ancestors of today’s old world monkeys, apes and humans is called Parapithecus. It was discovered from the lower Oligocene epoch in Egypt. The evolutionary line of the old world monkeys diverged from the main trunk of primate evolution (Parapithecus) in the Oligocene.
(ii)Originated about 30-35 years ago.

B. Propliopithecus: Another evolutionary line, which aroused from the main trunk of primate evolution in the miscene about 10 million years ago. They give rise to gibbons.

C. Proconsul: (i) Dryopithecines were succeeded by a fossil named Proconsul africanus. It was discovered by Miocene in South Africa.
(ii) It is morphologically intermediate between apes and man in many features.
Proconsul: gave rise to the ancestors of Chimpanzee and gorilla in the Pliocene about 4 million years ago.

D. Limnopithecus: It is a genus of gibbons from the lower Miocene of eastern Africa.
The correct option is A.

Note: Parapithecus members are considered to be basal anthropoids and the genus is closely related to Apidium.