Abstract

Fossil monkeys are rare in the British palaeontological record, a few specimens having been reported from the Pleistocene, and a single specimen from the Red Crag, possibly of Late Miocene or Pliocene age. An undescribed monkey tooth from the Red Crag at Waldringfield collected circa 1908 that has remained unidentified in the collections of the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, is described herein. The fossil was associated with dental remains of a suid, a tapir and a deer which, taken as an assemblage, are best correlated to the Early Pliocene, being similar to specimens from Perrier, France. Because of the high latitudinal position of Waldringfield (52°N) and indications for a tropical to sub-tropical palaeoenvironment during the Late Miocene – Early Pliocene, the monkey tooth from there is of great interest.

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Abstract

During field surveys between 2005 and 2011 in the Tugen Hills by the Franco-Kenyan Kenya Palaeontology Expedition, several hominid specimens were discovered in the Pliocene Mabaget Formation. One mandible fragment, three isolated teeth and a pedal phalanx collected from the Pelion Member (base of the formation aged 5.0–4.5 Ma) are compatible in dimensions with Orrorin tugenensis and Ardipithecus ramidus whilst a mandible from the Sinibo Member, a younger level in the formation (ca. 3.4–3.0 Ma) represents an appreciably larger species, as big as, or bigger than, Praeanthropus afarensis (ex-Australopithecus afarensis) from locality AL 333, Ethiopia. The small hominid mandible and an isolated p/3 were found in the type section of the Mabaget Formation at localities 2/211 and 2/210 respectively, in deposits aged ca. 5.0–4.5 Ma. An isolated upper milk molar, a lower third molar and a pedal phalanx are from Sagatia, near Rondinin, also aged between 5.0 and 4.5 Ma. The large mandible was collected at Sinibo, near Kipcherere, from sediments above the local occurrence of the Tulu Bor Tuff (= Sidi Hakoma Tuff) which is dated at 3.446 Ma. The aim of this paper is to describe and interpret these hominid fossils and to place them within their geological, stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental contexts.

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