abstract:Oreopithecus is an extinct primate from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. Oreopithecus (from the Greek [oros and πίθηκος], pithekos, meaning "hill-ape") existed in the Tusco-Sardinian area when this territory was an isolated island in a chain of islands stretching from central Europe to northern Africa.