Johannes Hürzeler (1 February 1908 – 24 July 1995) was a Swiss paleontologist.
Biography Hürzeler was professor of zoology at the University of Basel. In 1958, he discovered in a lignite mine in Tuscany fossils of an upright-walking primate dating back 8 to 10 million years, which he named "Homo bambolii". The discovery, however, was not widely accepted, as many considered it impossible that a complete primate skeleton from the Miocene could be found. Herbert Haag, Adolf Haas, Johannes Hürzeler: Evolution und Bibel. Freiburg 1968.Otto Garraux: Oreopithecus bambolii, der ‹Urmensch› aus der Toscana. In: Basler Stadtbuch 1961, pp. 195–209.
Hürzeler also argued that Oreopithecus was a direct ancestor of the great apes, a claim that was so controversial among experts that he was not even invited to a 1985 symposium on Oreopithecus. Disillusioned, Hürzeler abandoned his research. The phylogenetic position of Oreopithecus within primates remains unresolved.
In 1971, he was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences.
He was buried at the in Basel.
Selected works Contribution à l'odontologie et à la phylogénèse du genre Pliopithecus Gervais. In: Annales de Paléontologie. Vol. 40, 1954, pp. 5–63. Oreopithecus bambolii Gervais: a preliminary report. In: Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Basel. Vol. 69, 1958, pp. 1–47.
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