CHORORA

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Chorora, Ethiopia

10 - 9 Ma

In 2007, Dr. Gen Suwa et al. announced the recognition and discovery of a new species of Miocene ape, Chororapithecus abyssinicus, from the 10–10.5-Myr-old deposits of the Chorora Formation at the southern margin of the Afar rift. This species shows genetically based dental structural modifications that are both associated with a probable initial adaptation to a comparatively fibrous diet and concurrent adaptation to hard and/or abrasive food items. These dental modifications suggest that Chororapithecus may be a basal member of the gorilla clade, and that the latter exhibited some amount of adaptive and phyletic diversity at around 10–11 Myr ago.

Image G. Suwa.