Late Miocene and early Pliocene ape, known from fragmentary fossils from E. Africa, south-eastern Europe, and northern India and Pakistan, dating from 14–10 Ma ago, and apparently identical or very similar to the E. African Kenyapithecus. Ramapithecus is regarded by many as transitional between the true Miocene apes (the Dryopithecinae) and the later Hominidae. If this is so, then the human and ape lines diverged prior to the late Miocene, 15–25 Ma ago. More recent evidence, however, suggests that Ramapithecus and the related or identical Sivapithecus are nearer to the evolutionary line that led to the orang-utan.