Macaca majori, commonly known as the dwarf macaque, is a prehistoric macaque from the Early Pleistocene of Sardinia, Italy.[1] It descended from the Barbary macaque.[2] Its temporal range spans from about 2 million to 0.8 million years ago, during the Nesogoral faunal complex, alongside the goat-antelope Nesogoral, the pig Sus sondaari, the hyena Chasmaporthetes, the pika Prolagus, the shrew Asoriculus, the mole Talpa tyrrhenica, the mustelid Pannonictis, and the dormouse Tyrrhenoglis.[3]
| Macaca majori Temporal range: Early Pleistocene
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Fossils | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Family: | Cercopithecidae |
| Genus: | Macaca |
| Species: | †M. majori
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Macaca majori Schaub and Azzaroli, 1946
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The tooth microwear in Macaca majori indicates that M. majori likely fed on harder foods and occupied a different dietary niche compared to its mainland fossil relatives.[4]
References
edit- ^ Fleagle, John G. (2013). Primate adaptation and evolution (3rd ed.). Academic Press. ISBN 9780123786333.
- ^ Elton, Sarah; O'Regan, Hannah J. (15 July 2014). "Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews. 96: 117–130. Bibcode:2014QSRv...96..117E. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.025.
- ^ Palombo, Maria Rita; Rozzi, Roberto (10 April 2014). "How correct is any chronological ordering of the Quaternary Sardinian mammalian assemblages?". Quaternary International. 328–329: 136–155. Bibcode:2014QuInt.328..136P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.09.046.
- ^ Plastiras, C. A.; Thiery, G.; Guy, F.; Alba, D. M.; Nishimura, T.; Kostopoulos, D. S.; Merceron, G. (2023). "Investigating the dietary niches of fossil Plio-Pleistocene European macaques: The case of Macaca majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia". Journal of Human Evolution. 185. 103454. Bibcode:2023JHumE.18503454P. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103454. PMID 37977021. S2CID 265260157.
 | This prehistoric primate-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Old World monkey-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |