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The first specimen, O. macedoniensis was discovered by French palaeontologists Louis de Bonis and Jean Melentis in 1977,[3] and O. turkae by Turkish team led by Erksin Savaş Güleç in 2007.[2] For a long time it was considered as similar (synonymous) to Graecopithecus and member of the genus Sivapithecus,[4] which is something today contested.
Based on O. macedoniensis' dental and facial anatomy, it has been suggested that Ouranopithecus was actually a dryopithecine. However, it is probably more closely related to the Ponginae.[5][6] Some researchers consider O. macedoniensis to be the last common ancestor of humans (hominins) and the other apes,[7] and a forerunner to australopithecines and humans,[8] although this is very controversial and not widely accepted. It is true that O. macedoniensis shares derived features with some early hominins (such as the frontal sinus, a cavity in the forehead), but they are almost certainly not closely related species.[9]
In 1984, British palaeontologists Peter Andrews and Lawrence B. Martin classified Graecopithecus and Ouranopithecus as synonyms (same taxon) and treated them as members of the genus Sivapithecus.[10][11] However, comparative analysis showed that there is not enough data to support the synonymy.[12]
When more O. macedoniensis fossils were discovered[13] including part of the skull in the 1990s,[14] it became apparent that O. macedoniensis and G. freybergi are distinct species. In the light of new data, in 1997, Australian palaeontologist David W. Cameron treated Graecopithecus as a valid genus based on taxonomic priority and renamed O. macedoniensis as Graecopithecus macedoniensis.[15][16] However, better O. macedoniensis specimens were found[17] including a new species Ouranopithecus turkae from Turkey[18] that warranted separation of the genus. Furthermore, a controversial paper in 2017 claimed that Graecopithecus is more closely related to hominins than to other great apes,[19] which if true would clearly distinguish it from Ouranopithecus specimens. Separate genus for the two therefore continue to be generally adopted.[20][21][22]
^de Bonis, Louis; Koufos, George D. (2004). "Ouranopithecus and dating the splitting of extant hominoids". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 3 (4): 257–264. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2004.04.002.
^de Bonis, Louis; et al. (1981). "Dental metric variation in early Hominids comparison between Australopithecus afarensis and Ouranopithecus macedoniensis". Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. Serie III Sciences de la Vie. 292: 263–266.
^Andrews, Martin L. (1984). "The phylogenetic position of Graeceopithecus freybergi Koenigswald". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 69: 25–40.
^Koufos, George D.; de Bonis, Louis (2005). "The late Miocene Hominoids Ouranopithecus and Graeceopithecus. Implications about their relationships and taxonomy". Annales de Paléontologie. 91 (3): 227–240. Bibcode:2005AnPal..91..227K. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2005.05.001.
^Koufos, G. D. (1993). "Mandible of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (Hominidae, Primates) from a new late miocene locality of Macedonia (Greece)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 91 (2): 225–234. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330910208. PMID8317563.
^Ioannidou, Melania; Koufos, George D.; de Bonis, Louis; Harvati, Katerina (2019). "A new three-dimensional geometric morphometrics analysis of the Ouranopithecus macedoniensis cranium (Late Miocene, Central Macedonia, Greece)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 170 (2): 295–307. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23900. PMID31339568. S2CID198194561.
