A Pliocene colobine from the Nakatsu Group, Kanagawa, Japan

Abstract

In 1991, a partial cranium of a fossil colobine monkey was found in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Its geological age is Late Pliocene (ca. 2.5 Ma). It is larger than skulls of living colobine monkeys and resembles a male example of Pliocene Dolichopithecus ruscinensis from France. However, the cranium exhibits some distinctive features, notably very thin postorbital rims (lateral margins of the orbit). Therefore, a new subgeneric and specific name Dolichopithecus (Kanagawapithecus) leptopostorbitalis is given. © 2005 The Anthropological Society of Nippon.