Further insight into an unnamed, medium-sized crouzeliid pliopithecoid from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract Pliopithecoids are a clade of stem catarrhines represented by multiple Middle to Late Miocene genera in the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula). The recent description of the crouzeliid Fanchangia (Early Miocene, China) and the recognition that Pliobates (Late Miocene, Spain) is a crouzeliid enable to revisit the taxonomic affinities of some pliopithecoid remains from this basin, namely an M 2 from Trinxera del Ferrocarril-Sant Quirze (SQ-TF; ~11.6–11.2 Ma), generally interpreted as a pliopithecid, and a dP 4 from Can Feliu 2 (CF2; <11.2 Ma), previously considered a crouzeliid. We redescribe these remains based on both external morphology and enamel-dentine junction (EDJ), and compare them with those of other pliopithecoids. A cladistic analysis of dental features is performed using a dental matrix that includes the dP 4 position, while the M 2 EDJ shape is compared using landmark-based three-dimensional geometric morphometric (3DGM) analysis. Finally, body mass is estimated based on M 2 size using available allometric equations. Our qualitative comparisons show that the M 2 resembles in some regards the Asian anapithecines Laccopithecus and Fanchangia but is less derived than Anapithecus , while the 3DGM analysis supports its crouzeliid affinities and hints at differences from crouzeliines. In turn, the dP 4 resembles that of crouzeliids, including the anapithecine Fanchangia and the crouzeliines Pliobates and Crouzelia . Given size congruence and close geographic and temporal proximity, it is likely that both specimens belong to a single, medium-sized crouzeliid species. A cladistic analysis of the two specimens simultaneously supports a sister-taxon relationship with Fanchangia within anapithecine crouzeliids. We conclude that the remains from SQ-TF and CF2 belong to the Crouzeliidae and, likely, to a medium-sized anapithecine. Given the scarcity of the material, we refrain from erecting a new species and provisionally refer to this taxon as Anapithecinae nov.—in the hope that future fieldwork will eventually recover additional, more complete material.