Parapresbytis

Parapresbytis is an extinct genus of colobine monkey that lived in northeast Asia during the Mid-Late Pliocene. It is represented by single species known as Parapresbytis eohanuman, whose remains have been found throughout the Transbaikal area.

Parapresbytis Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Infraorder:	Simiiformes
Family:	Cercopithecidae
Subfamily:	Colobinae
Genus:	†Parapresbytis Kalmykov & Maschenco, 1992
Species:	†P. eohanuman
Binomial name
†Parapresbytis eohanuman Borissoglebskaya, 1981

Taxonomy

Parapresbytis eohanuman was once considered a species of Dolichopithecus, but was found to be distinct.^[1] There is debate as to its exact position within Colobinae, with some researchers considering it an ancestor to certain Asian colobines such as snub-nosed monkeys, and others considering it a member of a primitive colobine radiation that includes Dolichopithecus and left no descendants.^[2] Parapresbytis seems to display a mosiac of distinct features shared with different living Asian colobine species, making its placement uncertain.^[3]

Description

Parapresbytis was a large monkey, with an ulnar comparable in size to a chacma baboon. It has been estimated to weigh in at over 30 kg (66 lb).^[3] Despite its size, the elbow morphology of Parapresbytis indicates that it was a climber and thus it can be assumed that it lived a mostly arboreal lifestyle. This matches well with the palaeoclimate of Pliocene northeast Asia, which at the time when Parapresbytis was living, would have been covered in warm forests.^[1]