Dryopithecus crusafonti sp. nov., a New Miocene Hominoid Species From Can Ponsic (Northeastern Spain)

Reanalysis of the sample of Miocene Hominoidea from Spain, together with the entire sample of European Miocene Hominoidea, has revealed a number of distinctive traits among the specimens from the early Vallesian locality of Can Ponsic (Crusafont and Hurzeler, 1969; Crusafont and Golpe, 1973; Hartenberger and Crusafont, 1979; Agusti et al., 1984,1985). The Can Ponsic sample, while sharing characteristics with other samples of Dryopithecus from Europe, is sufficiently distinctive to form the basis for a new species. Characteristic of the new species are a distinctive lower molar occlusal morphology, large, broad upper molars, and very high crowned upper central incisors with well-developed lingual pillars. The new species shares characteristics with Dryopithecus Zaietanus, the only other species of the genus in Spain, and lacks derived features of non-Spanish Dryopithecus. Four species of Dryopithecus are now known (Begun, 1987,1988a, and in preparation). Their distribution and morphology have significant implications for the biogeography and phylogeny of this early great ape genus. Hominoid primates have been known from Miocene deposits in northeastern Spain since the early part of this century. The first discovery of a Miocene hominoid from Spain was a mandibular fragment from El Firal (Fig. l ) , in Seu d’Urgell in the Province of Lerida (Vidal, 1913; Smith-Woodward, 1914). This specimen was attributed to Dryopithecus fontani, a species described earlier from St. Gaudens, on the French side of the Pyrenees (Lartet, 1856). The Spanish sample of Dryopithecus was subsequently greatly increased in size by discoveries from a series of localities in the Valles Penedes basin, to the south and east of El Firal (Fig. 2) (Villalta and Crusafont, 1944; Crusafont and Hurzeler, 1961, 1969; Crusafont and Golpe, 1973). The hominoids from theValles Penedes are now known from seven different localities. In the past, the specimens from these localities were assigned to a large number of different genera and species (reviewed in Simons and Pilbeam, 1965; Szalay and Delson, 1979). These reviews led to the current taxonomic consensus, which places all the Spanish Miocene hominoid specimens in the genus Dryopithecus. Uncertainty persists concerning the exact number of species and their identification, but most authors recognize two species, Dryopithecus laietanus and Dryopithecus fontani (Simons and Pilbeam, 1965), or D. brancoi and D. fontani (Szalay and Delson, 1979). In both cases and in other modifications of these general conclusions (Andrews, 1985)) the two recognized species are distinguished on the basis of dental size alone, with D. fontani always the largest (Simons and Pilbeam, 1965; Szalay and Delson, 1979). Recent reanalysis of the Valles Penedes and El Firal specimens along with new specimens from the Valles Penedes (Begun, 1987, 1988a; Begun et al., 1990) is only in partial agreement with this view. Disagreement centers on which two species are represented and how they are defined. It has been shown elsewhere that size in fact does not distinguish between Dryopithecus species Received September 21,1990; accepted September 16,1991 @ 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.