Arthur Hopwood coined the term Proconsul after the famous chimpanzee “Consul the Great.” Proconsul was a medium sized ape represented by four species: P. africanus; P. heseloni; P. major; and P. nyanzae. The best known of the “dental apes,” Proconsuls teeth displayed the Y-5 pattern characteristic of modern apes (Stanford). According to Hartwig, “Proconsul was an arboreal, quadrupedal catarrhine most similar in locomotive ability to a modern colobus monkey. This genus exhibited a short broad face with sweeping zygomatic arches, a broad nasal aperture, and a broad intraorbital region.” With an estimated cranial capacity of 167.3 c.c., Proconsuls brain size is larger than that of most modern monkeys (Murdock).  Anthropologists have argued as to whether or not Proconsul retained a tail. According to Nakatsukasa, et al., “Recovered sacral vertebra indicates that Proconsul did not have a tail. The anatomical affinities of the last sacral and postsacral vertebra of monkeys and apes are clearly distinguishable. The resemblance of that vertebra in Proconsul to that of modern apes is remarkable.” The lack of a tail would suggest that they were lost early in hominoid evolution (Murdock).  Proconsul is the earliest known hominoid discovered to date.