The Face of Sivapithecus indicus : Description of a New, Relatively Complete Specimen from the Siwaliks of Pakistan

A recently recovered specimen of Sivapithecus indicus from Late Miocene Siwalik deposits which preserves much of the face is described. The face is generally gracile, although the mandibular corpus is deep and robust. The specimen exhibits numerous similarities to Pongo pygmaeus and it is suggested that S. indicus and P. pygmaeus bear a close phyletic relationship; a taxonomic scheme is proposed to accommodate these conclusions. The orang-like specializations of S. indicus indicate that it probably was not ancestral to the hominids or African apes, although this may not be the case for other Sivapithecus species.