page_title: Danuvius guggenmosi
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Danuvius guggenmosi / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Tongrube Hammerschmiede bei Pforzen, Januar 2015
context_page_description: Danuvius guggenmosi is an extinct species of great ape that lived 11.6 million years ago during the Middle–Late Miocene in southern Germany. It is the sole member of the genus Danuvius. The area at this time was probably a woodland with a seasonal climate. A male specimen was estimated to have weighed about 31 kg, and two females 17 and 19 kg. Both genus and species were described in November 2019.
  It is the first-discovered Late Miocene great ape with preserved long bones which could possibly be used to reconstruct the limb anatomy and thus the locomotion of contemporary apes. It had adaptations for both hanging in trees and walking on two legs —whereas, among present-day great apes, humans are better adapted for the latter and the others the former. Danuvius thus had a method of locomotion unlike any previously known ape called "extended limb clambering", walking directly along tree branches as well as using arms for suspending itself. The last common ancestor between humans and other apes possibly had a similar method of locomotion.
context_section_description: The genus name Danuvius is a reference to the Celtic–Roman river-god Danuvius, a Roman name for the river Danube, which flows through the region where the remains were found. The specific name guggenmosi honours the amateur archaeologist Sigulf Guggenmos (1941–2018), who discovered the clay pit in which Danuvius was found.
  The remains of Danuvius were discovered in clay near the town of Pforzen in southern Germany, magnetostratigraphically dated to 11.62 million years ago (mya) at the Serravallian-Tortonian boundary (the Astaracian–Vallesian boundary in ELMA), and were unearthed between 2015 and 2018. The holotype GPIT/MA/10000 comprises a partial skeleton with elements of the mouth, vertebrae, and long bones. There are also three paratypes: an adult left femur (GPIT/MA/10001); an adult left femur, big toe, and teeth (GPIT/MA/10003); and juvenile teeth and a middle finger bone (GPIT/MA/10002). There are 37 specimens in total.
  Its tooth anatomy is most similar to that of other dryopithecine great apes. Having both adaptations for hanging in trees (suspensory locomotion) and standing on two legs (bipedalism), Danuvius may have been very similar in locomotory methods to the last common ancestor between humans and other apes, which adds weight to the hypothesis that ape suspensory activity and human bipedalism both originated from a form capable of both. However, it is too early to draw more definitive conclusions because it is unclear how Danuvius is related to modern great apes, including humans. Its discovery could possibly also influence reconstructions of contemporary great ape limb anatomy and locomotion, which were previously by-and-large unknown.
caption: Hammerschmiede clay pit near Pforzen, where the fossils were found
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