| Pliobates Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Superfamily: | Hominoidea |
| Family: | †Pliobatidae Alba et al. 2015[1] |
| Genus: | †Pliobates Alba et al. 2015[1] |
| Species: | †P. cataloniae
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Pliobates cataloniae Alba et al. 2015[1]
| |
Pliobates cataloniae is a primate from 11.6 million years ago, during the Iberian Miocene.[1][2][3] It is a species of stem-ape that was found to be the sister taxon to gibbons and great apes like humans.[1] Its anatomy is gibbon-like; prior to this discovery, it was assumed that the ancestral ape bauplan was robust like Proconsul.[4] This species has mosaic characteristics of primitive, monkey-like features and the more derived ape characteristics; it was, however, not a direct ancestor of modern apes but rather a side-branch that retained the ancestral morphotype and was thus placed in its own family Pliobatidae.[5]
