Word: ramapithecus
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...bones belonged to an extinct primate that paleontologists call Ramapithecus (the Latin word for ape, with a bow to the Indian god Rama). Scientists already knew that the creature lived in Asia and Africa 8,000,000 to 15 million years ago. But they have never known exactly where to place him on the evolutionary ladder. Did he belong to the family of apes? Or was he already a member of the family of man? The questions puzzled Yale Paleontologist Elwyn L. Simons, and his former student, David R. Pilbeam, both of whom had strongly suspected for some time that...
...Ramapithecus had a V-shaped upper jaw more similar to human form than to the U-shaped jaws of modern gorillas, orangs, chimpanzees. Sugrivapithecus had a well-developed chin like that of primitive man. Both had close-set, almost human teeth, lacking the formidable canine tusks of the great apes of today. The third genus was more like extinct apes previously discovered...