A genus of extinct apes from the Miocene epoch (about 20-10 million years ago) found in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
From Greek 'drys' (oak tree, symbolizing its woodland habitat) and 'pithekos' (ape), coined by paleontologists who discovered fossil remains in oak-forest regions of Europe.
Dryopithecus fossils were revolutionary because they proved apes lived in Europe millions of years ago, forcing scientists to completely rethink where human ancestry originated—we're not descended from African apes as some thought, but from a global diversity of ape species.
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