Sardinia

Macaca majori is an extinct, endemic monkey species found in the Lower Pleistocene and, probably, in part of the Middle Pleistocene of Sardinia.

The first fossils of this primate were collected as early as the beginning of the 20th century at Capo Figari (Golfo Aranci, northeastern Sardinia), but the species was not formally described until 1946 by Professor Augusto Azzaroli, who named it after the first discoverer of the specimens, the palaeontologist Fosyth Major. The skull pictured here, the winner of the contest, was discovered in the Is Oreris area (Fluminimaggiore, southwestern Sardinia) and described in 1970 by Professor Ida Comaschi Caria.

This Sardinian Quaternary primate is comparable in size to the smallest species of Macaca currently found in Southeast Asia, and most likely inhabited rocky environments similar to those frequented today by the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), a closely related species found in northwestern Africa and the Gibraltar area.

The relative abundance of remains of young individuals at various sites suggests that the accumulation of these remains may have been, at least in part, the result of predation by birds of prey.