Ramapithecus A genus of extinct primates that lived about 12–14 million years ago.

Fossil remains of ramapithecines have been found in India and Pakistan, the Near
East, and East Africa. Early discoveries of jaw fragments suggested that they
chewed from side to side and had fairly short muzzles, both of which are humanoid
features. However, subsequent finds, including a complete jaw, were not hominoid,
and ramapithecines are now regarded by many authorities as ancestral to the Asian
great apes (e.g. orang-utans), not the hominids. See also Dryopithecus;
Australopithecus.

Dryopithecus was a genus of apes that is known from Eastern Africa into Eurasia. It
lived during the Upper[verification needed] Miocene period, from 25 to 9 million years ago,
and probably includes the common ancestor of the lesser apes (gibbons and
siamangs) and the great apes. The name of Dryopithecus is derived from Greek
meaning Oak Tree Ape.

The first species of Dryopithecus discovered was discovered at the site of St. Gardens
in Haute Garrone, France, in 1856. The five-cusp and juvenile[1] fissure pattern of its
molar teeth, known as the Y-5 arrangement, is typical of the dryopithecids and of
hominoids in general. Other dryopithecids have been found in Hungary[2], Spain[3],
and China[4]. The Hominidae (anglicized hominids, also known as great apes[notes 1])
form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans,
and orangutans.[1]

A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Homininae
subfamily, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subfamily. The most recent common
ancestor of the Hominidae lived roughly 14 million years ago,[2] when the ancestors of the
orangutans speciated from the ancestors of the other three genera.[3] The ancestors of the
Hominidae family had already speciated from those of the Hylobatidae family, perhaps
15-20 million years ago.[3][4]