Morotopithecus bishopi is a species of fossil ape discovered in Moroto

Moroto District

Moroto District is a district in Northern Uganda. Like many other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Moroto, where the district headquarters are located.-Location:...

, Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

.

The phylogenetic status of Morotopithecus bishopi is debated to the extent that it challenges established views on the connection between Miocene primates and extant hominids

Hominidae

The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....

 (i.e. great apes

Great Apes

Great Apes may refer to*Great apes, species in the biological family Hominidae, including humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans*Great Apes , a 1997 novel by Will Self...

). Parsimonious phylogenetic analyses indicate Morotopithecus is more derived than Proconsul, Afropithecus

Afropithecus

Afropithecus turkanensis, a new Miocene hominoid, was excavated from a small site near Lake Turkana called Kalodirr in northern Kenya in 1986 and was named by Richard Leakey and Meave Leakey...

, and Kenyapithecus, but less derived than Oreopithecus, Sivapithecus

Sivapithecus

Sivapithecus is a genus of extinct primates. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills in what is now India, Nepal, and Pakistan...

, and Dryopithecus

Dryopithecus

Dryopithecus was a genus of apes that is known from Eastern Africa into Eurasia during the late Miocene period. The first species of Dryopithecus was discovered at the site of Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, France, in 1856...

. Morotopithecus thus seems to be a sister taxon to extant great apes while Hylobates

Hylobates

The genus Hylobates is one of the four genera of gibbons. It was once considered the only genus, but recently its subgenera have been elevated to the genus level. Hylobates remains the most speciose and widespread of gibbon genera, ranging from southern China to western and central Java...

(gibbon

Gibbon

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...

s) seem to have branched off before this clade appeared. However, gibbons are believed to have branched off while Morotopithecus is dated to more than .