An Oreopithecus bambolii jaw in the Museum “Giorgio G. Gemmellaro” in Palermo

In this contribution we describe a specimen attributed to Oreopithecus bambolii Gervais, 1872 (Primates), preliminarily reported in the 1990’s by E. Burgio, the then-curator of the Gemmellaro Museum in Palermo. It is a portion of a maxilla bearing the erupted right second molar, as well as the unerupted right canine and third molar, all excellently preserved. The fragment has been compared with specimens preserved in the Museum of Paleontology in Florence. It shows an overall appearance and taphonomic features that match those of the specimens from the lignite mines near Grosseto in Tuscany. Basic metric surveys and a microCT scan were carried out on the sample. The Museum’s records do not allow us to define precisely how the specimen was acquired, but we report some research carried out in the archives at Palermo and Florence, in relation to a possible exchange that took place in the 1870’s, between the then-directors G.G. Gemmellaro and I. Cocchi.