Kenyapithecus wickeri has very distinct features, especially details in the canine teeth and is similar to modern apes.
Some millions of years ago the creatures ancestral to man branched off from the line of evolution leading to the modern apes.
Most palaeontologists have hitherto supposed that the nearest common ancestor of man and the modern great apes died out about 30 million years ago.
Gracile australopithecines shared several traits with modern apes and humans.
Humans and modern apes descended from an ancestor that had attributes common to both.
Darwin had favoured Africa as the cradle of humankind, a view that was consistent with the link to the modern great apes.
They had a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the large brain of the genus Homo.
The teeth suggest omnivory, and are more generalised than those of modern apes.
She told us that she had made several visits to the London Zoo and so was familiar with the appearance of modern apes.
Oldowan tools were probably used for many purposes, which have been discovered from observation of modern apes and hunter-gatherers.