Prohylobates (Primates) from the Early Miocene of Libya: A new species and its implications for cercopithecid origins

Prohylobates simonsi n. sp. is described on the basis of a partial mandible with M_2–3 from the region of GebelZelten. It is nearly twice the size of the penecontemporaneous P. tandyi and has a relatively longer M₃, but otherwise is nearly identical in morphology. Prohylobates is the most conservative known cercopithecid, presenting incomplete bilophodonty, possible cingulum remnants, high relative width of M₂ and robust mandibular corpus. The variation in M₃ length is comparable to that within some later cercopithecid species and between the species of Propliopithecus, the Oligocene catarrhine suggested to be nearest the ancestry of the Cercopithecidae. Parapithecus (including Simonsius) is not a cercopithecid ancestor