Oreopithecus, the ape on an island
An ape isolated on a Mediterranean island evolves strange proportions — and possibly a bipedal gait.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1.6 million years
- Known to
- ± 300 thousand years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Oreopithecus lived on what was then an island covering parts of Tuscany and Sardinia, isolated from predators and from other apes. It has a short broad pelvis, an unusual foot with a widely divergent big toe, and lumbar vertebrae that some argue indicate habitual upright walking. Others read the same bones as a specialised climber. Either way it is an instructive case: island isolation repeatedly produces anatomies that look like convergent solutions to problems solved differently elsewhere. It dies out when a land connection forms and predators arrive.