Nacholapithecus kerioi

Nacholapithecus kerioi is an extinct ape that lived about 15 to 14 million years ago, in the Middle Miocene, and is known from fossils found in the Nachola area of northern Kenya. It is the only member of its genus and is regarded as an important genus for understanding the early history of the hominids. Its body plan resembled that of Proconsul: it had no tail, a narrow torso, large upper limbs with mobile shoulder joints, long feet and a long vertebral column with six lumbar vertebrae. Morphological evidence suggests that walking along branches on all four limbs was its main way of moving about. Researchers first placed it in Kenyapithecus, then in Equatorius, before Ishida and colleagues recognised it as a genus of its own in 1999.