The pioneering paleoprimatologist Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major (1843-1923) and a Mesopithecus tooth from an unrecorded locality of Italy (?Casino Basin) in the Basel Naturhistorisches Museum

ABSTRACT - C.I. Forsyth Major was a pioneer of paleoprimatology as well as an extremely active field paleontologist. He collected a large quantity of fossil mammal remains of Neogene and Quaternary age during his fieldwork in Italy. A previously unpublished lower fourth premolar of Mesopithecus from the Forsyth Major collections housed in the Basel Naturhistorisches Museum is described and illustrated herein. Although the locality was not recorded, the specimen is considered as being from the Casino Basin (Tuscany, Italy). The specimen is attributed to the Late Miocene species Mesopithecus pentelicus on the basis of morphological characters such as dental size and proportions. Although significant statistical differences have been noted compared with the Pliocene species, Mesopithecus monspessulanus, based only on the single element presented here, a clear cut distinction between the two species is not observed.