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Chaimanee Y, Chavasseau O, Lazzari V, Soe AN, Sein C, Jaeger JJ. Early anthropoid primates: New data and new questions. Evol Anthropol 2024; 33:e22022. [PMID: 38270328 DOI: 10.1002/evan.22022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Although the evolutionary history of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans) appears relatively well-documented, there is limited data available regarding their origins and early evolution. We review and discuss here the earliest records of anthropoid primates from Asia, Africa, and South America. New fossils provide strong support for the Asian origin of anthropoid primates. However, the earliest recorded anthropoids from Africa and South America are still subject to debate, and the early evolution and dispersal of platyrhines to South America remain unclear. Because of the rarity and incomplete nature of many stem anthropoid taxa, establishing the phylogenetic relationships among the earliest anthropoids remains challenging. Nonetheless, by examining evidence from anthropoids and other mammalian groups, we demonstrate that several dispersal events occurred between South Asia and Afro-Arabia during the middle Eocene to the early Oligocene. It is possible that a microplate situated in the middle of the Neotethys Ocean significantly reduced the distance of overseas dispersal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaowalak Chaimanee
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR 7262 CNRS, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
| | - Olivier Chavasseau
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR 7262 CNRS, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
| | - Vincent Lazzari
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR 7262 CNRS, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
| | - Aung N Soe
- University of Distance Education, Mandalay, Myanmar
| | - Chit Sein
- University of Distance Education, Yangon, Myanmar
| | - Jean-Jacques Jaeger
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR 7262 CNRS, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
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2
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Jaeger JJ, Sein C, Gebo DL, Chaimanee Y, Nyein MT, Oo TZ, Aung MM, Suraprasit K, Rugbumrung M, Lazzari V, Soe AN, Chavasseau O. Amphipithecine primates are stem anthropoids: cranial and postcranial evidence. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20202129. [PMID: 33171091 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Since their discovery in 1927, the phylogenetic status of the Myanmar amphipithecines has been highly debated. These fossil primates are recognized either as anthropoids or as adapiform strepsirrhines. This uncertainty was largely the consequence of a limited fossil record consisting mostly of jaw fragments but lacking the critical cranial elements that might resolve this debate. We report here cranial remains associated with an ulna from a single individual pertaining to the amphipithecine Ganlea megacanina. In addition to anthropoid-like dentognathic characters, Ganlea displays several ulna and skull features that testify to its anthropoid affinities (e.g. short subvertically oriented lacrimal duct, lacrimal foramen and bone inside the orbit, maxillary contribution to the lower orbital rim, fused metopic suture). By contrast to crown anthropoids, however, Ganlea lacks postorbital closure, confirming that postorbital closure appeared later than many anthropoid dentognathic characters and evolved convergently in extant tarsiers and anthropoids. Thus, amphipithecines must now be recognized as stem anthropoids offering a unique window on the early evolution of cranial and skeletal features in anthropoids, and reinforcing the hypothesis of an origin and early diversification of anthropoids in Asia.
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Affiliation(s)
- J-J Jaeger
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 Rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Poitiers Cedex 9, France
| | - C Sein
- Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Naypyitaw 15011, Myanmar
| | - D L Gebo
- Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
| | - Y Chaimanee
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 Rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Poitiers Cedex 9, France
| | - M T Nyein
- Department of Underwater Archaeology, Field School of Archaeology, Pyay Township, Bago Region, Myanmar
| | - T Z Oo
- Department of Geology, East Yangon University, Thanlyin Township, Yangon, Myanmar
| | - M M Aung
- Department of Geology, East Yangon University, Thanlyin Township, Yangon, Myanmar
| | - K Suraprasit
- Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
| | - M Rugbumrung
- Department of Mineral Resources, Rama VI Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
| | - V Lazzari
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 Rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Poitiers Cedex 9, France
| | - A N Soe
- University of Distance Education, Mandalay 05023, Myanmar
| | - O Chavasseau
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 Rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Poitiers Cedex 9, France
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A new primate from the late Eocene of Vietnam illuminates unexpected strepsirrhine diversity and evolution in Southeast Asia. Sci Rep 2019; 9:19983. [PMID: 31882616 PMCID: PMC6934687 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56255-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2019] [Accepted: 12/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Sivaladapidae is a poorly known Asian strepsirrhine family originally discovered in Miocene sediments of the Indian subcontinent. Subsequent research has considerably increased the diversity, temporal range, and geographical distribution of this group, now documented from China, Thailand, Myanmar, Pakistan, and India and whose earliest representatives date back to the Middle Eocene. We present here a new taxon of sivaladapid from the Na Duong coal mine in the Latest Middle Eocene-Late Eocene of Vietnam. It represents the first Eocene primate from Vietnam and the first medium-sized mammal recovered from this locality, thus documenting a completely new part of the Na Duong paleobiodiversity. This taxon is the largest sivaladapid ever found with an estimated body weight of 5.3 kg and it represents a new subfamily of sivaladapids in exhibiting a very peculiar combination of dental features yet unknown in the fossil record of the family (e.g., retention of four premolars, high-crowned molars with accentuated bunodonty and extreme crest reduction). Besides documenting a complete new part of sivaladapid evolution, its primitive dental formula and derived features shared with the Early Eocene Asiadapidae reinforce the hypothesis of a basal branching of sivaladapids among strepsirrhines.
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Jaeger JJ, Chavasseau O, Lazzari V, Naing Soe A, Sein C, Le Maître A, Shwe H, Chaimanee Y. New Eocene primate from Myanmar shares dental characters with African Eocene crown anthropoids. Nat Commun 2019; 10:3531. [PMID: 31388005 PMCID: PMC6684601 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11295-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2018] [Accepted: 07/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent discoveries of older and phylogenetically more primitive basal anthropoids in China and Myanmar, the eosimiiforms, support the hypothesis that Asia was the place of origins of anthropoids, rather than Africa. Similar taxa of eosimiiforms have been discovered in the late middle Eocene of Myanmar and North Africa, reflecting a colonization event that occurred during the middle Eocene. However, these eosimiiforms were probably not the closest ancestors of the African crown anthropoids. Here we describe a new primate from the middle Eocene of Myanmar that documents a new clade of Asian anthropoids. It possesses several dental characters found only among the African crown anthropoids and their nearest relatives, indicating that several of these characters have appeared within Asian clades before being recorded in Africa. This reinforces the hypothesis that the African colonization of anthropoids was the result of several dispersal events, and that it involved more derived taxa than eosimiiforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Jacques Jaeger
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 rue Michel Brunet Cedex 9, 86073, Poitiers, France.
| | - Olivier Chavasseau
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 rue Michel Brunet Cedex 9, 86073, Poitiers, France
| | - Vincent Lazzari
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 rue Michel Brunet Cedex 9, 86073, Poitiers, France
| | - Aung Naing Soe
- University of Distance Education, Mandalay, 05023, Myanmar
| | - Chit Sein
- Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, Naypyitaw, 15011, Myanmar
| | - Anne Le Maître
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 rue Michel Brunet Cedex 9, 86073, Poitiers, France.,Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Hla Shwe
- Department of Archaeology and National Museum, Mandalay Branch, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, Mandalay, 05011, Myanmar
| | - Yaowalak Chaimanee
- Laboratory PALEVOPRIM, UMR CNRS 7262, University of Poitiers, 6 rue Michel Brunet Cedex 9, 86073, Poitiers, France
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Abstract
Anthropoid primates other than humans show a conspicuously disjunct geographic distribution today, inhabiting mostly tropical and subtropical parts of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. During the latter part of the Eocene, early anthropoids showed a similarly disjunct distribution, although South America and Africa were both island continents then. Attempts to explain the historical biogeography of anthropoids as resulting from vicariance caused by tectonic rifting between South America and Africa conflict with both the chronology and the topology of anthropoid evolution. The only viable hypotheses that remain entail sweepstakes dispersal across marine barriers by early monkeys on natural rafts. Early anthropoids and certain Asian rodent clades seem to have been especially adept at accomplishing sweepstakes dispersal, particularly during the Eocene, although this process has classically been envisioned as highly random and extremely rare. This article identifies and discusses biological and geological factors that make sweepstakes dispersal by certain taxa at given times far less random than previously conceived.
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Affiliation(s)
- K. Christopher Beard
- Biodiversity Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045
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Marivaux L, Essid EM, Marzougui W, Khayati Ammar H, Adnet S, Marandat B, Merzeraud G, Tabuce R, Vianey-Liaud M. A new and primitive species of Protophiomys (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the late middle Eocene of Djebel el Kébar, Central Tunisia. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014. [DOI: 10.18563/pv.38.1.e2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Marivaux L, Essid EM, Marzougui W, Khayati Ammar H, Adnet S, Marandat B, Merzeraud G, Ramdarshan A, Tabuce R, Vianey-Liaud M, Yans J. A morphological intermediate between eosimiiform and simiiform primates from the late middle Eocene of Tunisia: Macroevolutionary and paleobiogeographic implications of early anthropoids. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2014; 154:387-401. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2014] [Accepted: 04/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - El Mabrouk Essid
- Office National des Mines (ONM); Tunis BP: 215 - 1080 Tunis Tunisia
| | - Wissem Marzougui
- Office National des Mines (ONM); Tunis BP: 215 - 1080 Tunis Tunisia
| | | | - Sylvain Adnet
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Bernard Marandat
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Gilles Merzeraud
- Géosciences Montpellier (UMR-CNRS 5243); c.c. 060, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Anusha Ramdarshan
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Rodolphe Tabuce
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Monique Vianey-Liaud
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie; Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS, UM2, IRD), c.c. 064, Université Montpellier 2; F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France
| | - Johan Yans
- Department of Geology; University of Namur; NaGRIDD B-5000 Namur Belgium
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Chaimanee Y, Chavasseau O, Lazzari V, Euriat A, Jaeger JJ. A new Late Eocene primate from the Krabi Basin (Thailand) and the diversity of Palaeogene anthropoids in southeast Asia. Proc Biol Sci 2013; 280:20132268. [PMID: 24089342 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
According to the most recent discoveries from the Middle Eocene of Myanmar and China, anthropoid primates originated in Asia rather than in Africa, as was previously considered. But the Asian Palaeogene anthropoid community remains poorly known and inadequately sampled, being represented only from China, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand. Asian Eocene anthropoids can be divided into two distinct groups, the stem group eosimiiforms and the possible crown group amphipithecids, but the phylogenetic relationships between these two groups are not well understood. Therefore, it is critical to understand their evolutionary history and relationships by finding additional fossil taxa. Here, we describe a new small-sized fossil anthropoid primate from the Late Eocene Krabi locality in Thailand, Krabia minuta, which shares several derived characters with the amphipithecids. It displays several unique dental characters, such as extreme bunodonty and reduced trigon surface area, that have never been observed in other Eocene Asian anthropoids. These features indicate that morphological adaptations were more diversified among amphipithecids than was previously expected, and raises the problem of the phylogenetic relations between the crown anthropoids and their stem group eosimiiforms, on one side, and the modern anthropoids, on the other side.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaowalak Chaimanee
- IPHEP: Institut de Paléoprimatologie, Paléontologie Humaine : Évolution et Paléoenvironnements, CNRS UMR 7262, Université de Poitiers, , 6 rue Michel Brunet, 86022 Poitiers cedex, France
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Coster P, Beard KC, Soe AN, Sein C, Chaimanee Y, Lazzari V, Valentin X, Jaeger JJ. Uniquely derived upper molar morphology of Eocene Amphipithecidae (Primates: Anthropoidea): Homology and phylogeny. J Hum Evol 2013; 65:143-55. [PMID: 23823753 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2013] [Revised: 04/26/2013] [Accepted: 04/27/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Late Middle Eocene primate from Myanmar and the initial anthropoid colonization of Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012; 109:10293-7. [PMID: 22665790 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200644109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Reconstructing the origin and early evolutionary history of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans) is a current focus of paleoprimatology. Although earlier hypotheses frequently supported an African origin for anthropoids, recent discoveries of older and phylogenetically more basal fossils in China and Myanmar indicate that the group originated in Asia. Given the Oligocene-Recent history of African anthropoids, the colonization of Africa by early anthropoids hailing from Asia was a decisive event in primate evolution. However, the fossil record has so far failed to constrain the nature and timing of this pivotal event. Here we describe a fossil primate from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar, Afrasia djijidae gen. et sp. nov., that is remarkably similar to, yet dentally more primitive than, the roughly contemporaneous North African anthropoid Afrotarsius. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Afrasia and Afrotarsius are sister taxa within a basal anthropoid clade designated as the infraorder Eosimiiformes. Current knowledge of eosimiiform relationships and their distribution through space and time suggests that members of this clade dispersed from Asia to Africa sometime during the middle Eocene, shortly before their first appearance in the African fossil record. Crown anthropoids and their nearest fossil relatives do not appear to be specially related to Afrotarsius, suggesting one or more additional episodes of dispersal from Asia to Africa. Hystricognathous rodents, anthracotheres, and possibly other Asian mammal groups seem to have colonized Africa at roughly the same time or shortly after anthropoids gained their first toehold there.
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Ramdarshan A, Merceron G, Tafforeau P, Marivaux L. Dietary reconstruction of the Amphipithecidae (Primates, Anthropoidea) from the Paleogene of South Asia and paleoecological implications. J Hum Evol 2010; 59:96-108. [PMID: 20510435 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2009] [Revised: 03/16/2010] [Accepted: 04/21/2010] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Dagosto M, Marivaux L, Gebo DL, Beard KC, Chaimanee Y, Jaeger JJ, Marandat B, Soe AN, Kyaw AA. The phylogenetic affinities of the Pondaung tali. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2010; 143:223-34. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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13
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Marivaux L, Beard KC, Chaimanee Y, Dagosto M, Gebo DL, Guy F, Marandat B, Khaing K, Kyaw AA, Oo M, Sein C, Soe AN, Swe M, Jaeger JJ. Talar morphology, phylogenetic affinities, and locomotor adaptation of a large-bodied amphipithecid primate from the late middle eocene of Myanmar. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2010; 143:208-22. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Abstract
Adaptive shifts associated with human origins are brought to light as we examine the human fossil record and study our own genome and that of our closest ape relatives. However, the more ancient roots of many human characteristics are revealed through the study of a broader array of living anthropoids and the increasingly dense fossil record of the earliest anthropoid radiations. Genomic data and fossils of early primates in Asia and Africa clarify relationships among the major clades of primates. Progress in comparative anatomy, genomics, and molecular biology point to key changes in sensory ecology and brain organization that ultimately set the stage for the emergence of the human lineage.
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Zollikofer CPE, Ponce De León MS, Chaimanee Y, Lebrun R, Tafforeau P, Khansubhaand S, Jaeger JJ. The face of Siamopithecus: new geometric-morphometric evidence for its anthropoid status. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2010; 292:1734-44. [PMID: 19718713 DOI: 10.1002/ar.20998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Amphipithecids assume a key position in early primate evolution in Asia. Here we report on new maxillofacial and associated mandibular remains of Siamopithecus eocaenus, an amphipithecid primate from the Late Eocene of Krabi (Thailand) that currently represents the most complete specimen belonging to this group. We used synchrotron microtomography and techniques of virtual reconstruction to recover the three-dimensional morphology of the specimen. Geometric-morphometric analysis of the reconstructed specimen within a comparative sample of recent and fossil primates clearly associates Siamopithecus with the anthropoids. Like modern anthropoids, Siamopithecus displays a relatively short face and highly convergent and frontated orbits, the lower rim of which lies well above the alveolar plane. The cooccurrence of spatially correlated anthropoid features and classical anthropoid dental characters in one individual represents a strong argument to support the anthropoid status of Siamopithecus. It is, thus, highly unlikely that amphipithecids are specialized adapiforms exhibiting complete convergence with anthropoids.
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Beard KC, Marivaux L, Chaimanee Y, Jaeger JJ, Marandat B, Tafforeau P, Soe AN, Tun ST, Kyaw AA. A new primate from the Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar and the monophyly of Burmese amphipithecids. Proc Biol Sci 2009; 276:3285-94. [PMID: 19570790 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.0836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The family Amphipithecidae is one of the two fossil primate taxa from Asia that appear to be early members of the anthropoid clade. Ganlea megacanina, gen. et sp. nov., is a new amphipithecid from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation of central Myanmar. The holotype of Ganlea is distinctive in having a relatively enormous lower canine showing heavy apical wear, indicating an important functional role of the lower canine in food preparation and ingestion. A phylogenetic analysis of amphipithecid relationships suggests that Ganlea is the sister taxon of Myanmarpithecus, a relatively small-bodied taxon that has often, but not always, been included in Amphipithecidae. Pondaungia is the sister taxon of the Ganlea + Myanmarpithecus clade. All three Pondaung amphipithecid genera are monophyletic with respect to Siamopithecus, which is the most basal amphipithecid currently known. The inclusion of Myanmarpithecus in Amphipithecidae diminishes the likelihood that amphipithecids are specially related to adapiform primates. Extremely heavy apical wear has been documented on the lower canines of all three genera of Burmese amphipithecids. This distinctive wear pattern suggests that Burmese amphipithecids were an endemic radiation of hard object feeders that may have been ecological analogues of living New World pitheciin monkeys.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Christopher Beard
- Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
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Marivaux L, Beard KC, Chaimanee Y, Jaeger JJ, Marandat B, Soe AN, Tun ST, Kyaw AA. Proximal femoral anatomy of a sivaladapid primate from the late middle Eocene Pondaung formation (central Myanmar). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2008; 137:263-73. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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Beard KC, Marivaux L, Tun ST, Soe AN, Chaimanee Y, Htoon W, Marandat B, Aung HH, Jaeger JJ. New Sivaladapid Primates from the Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar and the Anthropoid Status of Amphipithecidae. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.2992/0145-9058(2007)39[67:nspfte]2.0.co;2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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19
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Marivaux L, Beard KC, Chaimanee Y, Jaeger JJ, Marandat B, Soe AN, Tun ST, Aung HH, Htoon W. Anatomy of the bony pelvis of a relatively large-bodied strepsirrhine primate from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation (central Myanmar). J Hum Evol 2007; 54:391-404. [PMID: 17996275 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2006] [Revised: 07/16/2007] [Accepted: 09/16/2007] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Recent survey of the fossiliferous variegated mudstones of the PK1 locality (Sabapondaung) in the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation (central Myanmar) has led to the recovery of a partial right innominate of a relatively large-bodied primate. Given its size and provenance, this bone probably belongs to the same individual represented by the NMMP 20 primate partial skeleton described previously from the same locality. The new fossil, which preserves the region around the acetabulum and the adjacent part of the ilium, clearly exhibits strepsirrhine rather than anthropoid affinities. This addition to our knowledge of the NMMP 20 partial skeleton allows us to reassess the different locomotor interpretations that have been proposed for this specimen. Aspects of pelvic morphology suggest that the NMMP 20 partial skeleton documents a primate that probably engaged in active arboreal quadrupedalism similar to that practiced by medium-sized Malagasy lemurids rather than lorislike slow moving and climbing. Given the conflicting phylogenetic signals provided by NMMP 39 (a talus showing anthropoid affinities) and NMMP 20 (a partial skeleton bearing adapiform affinities), it appears that two higher-level taxonomic groups of relatively large-bodied primates are documented in the Pondaung Formation. The recent discovery of two taxa of sivaladapid adapiforms from the Pondaung Formation indicates that the assumption that the NMMP 20 partial skeleton belongs to an amphipithecid can no longer be sustained. Instead, this specimen apparently documents a third large-bodied sivaladapid species in the Pondaung Formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (ISE-M, UMR - CNRS 5554), c.c. 64, Université Montpellier II, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
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20
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Seiffert ER, Simons EL, Clyde WC, Rossie JB, Attia Y, Bown TM, Chatrath P, Mathison ME. Basal Anthropoids from Egypt and the Antiquity of Africa's Higher Primate Radiation. Science 2005; 310:300-4. [PMID: 16224019 DOI: 10.1126/science.1116569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 90] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Early anthropoid evolution in Afro-Arabia is poorly documented, with only a few isolated teeth known from before approximately 35 million years ago. Here we describe craniodental remains of the primitive anthropoid Biretia from approximately 37-million-year-old rocks in Egypt. Biretia is unique among early anthropoids in exhibiting evidence for nocturnality, but derived dental features shared with younger parapithecids draw this genus, and possibly >45-million-year-old Algeripithecus, into a morphologically and behaviorally diverse parapithecoid clade of great antiquity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik R Seiffert
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, and Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, UK.
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21
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Egi N, Takai M, Tsubamoto T, Shigehara N. Additional materials of Myanmarpithecus yarshensis (Amphipithecidae, Primates) from the middle Eocene Pondaung Formation. Primates 2005; 47:123-30. [PMID: 16215774 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-005-0159-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2005] [Accepted: 07/23/2005] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Myanmarpithecus yarshensis is an amphipithecid primate from the middle Eocene Pondaung Formation in Myanmar. It was previously known based on maxillary fragments with P(4)-M(3) and mandibular fragments with C-P(3) and M(2-3). This study reports new materials for the genus, including a humeral head fragment, a lingual fragment of the right M(2), a lingual fragment of the right M(3), and a left I(1). These new materials were collected from approximately the same point, and likely belonged to the same individual. The upper molar morphology and size of the new materials show similarity to those of the type specimen, indicating that the new materials can be assigned to M. yarshensis. The humeral head is the first postcranial element that is associated with dental materials for amphipithecids. The morphological similarity between the previously reported larger humerus and this specimen confirms the assignment of the former specimen to Amphipithecidae and suggests common locomotor adaptations in the family. The upper central incisor is large relative to the molar fragments, but is within the variation among extant platyrrhines. The tooth is spatulate-shaped and high crowned, and lacks the mesial process, indicating similarity to I(1) of haplorhines and clear differences from that of adapoids. It has been suggested that amphipithecids, including Myanmarpithecus, have affinities with notharctine adapoids, but the morphology of I(1) does not support the notharctine hypothesis of the Amphipithecidae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naoko Egi
- Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
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22
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Martin RD. Anthropoid Origins: New Visions. INT J PRIMATOL 2005. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-005-6464-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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23
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Marivaux L, Antoine PO, Baqri SRH, Benammi M, Chaimanee Y, Crochet JY, de Franceschi D, Iqbal N, Jaeger JJ, Métais G, Roohi G, Welcomme JL. Anthropoid primates from the Oligocene of Pakistan (Bugti Hills): data on early anthropoid evolution and biogeography. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005; 102:8436-41. [PMID: 15937103 PMCID: PMC1150860 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0503469102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Asian tarsiid and sivaladapid primates maintained relictual distributions in southern Asia long after the extirpation of their close Holarctic relatives near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. We report here the discovery of amphipithecid and eosimiid primates from Oligocene coastal deposits in Pakistan that demonstrate that stem anthropoids also survived in southern Asia beyond the climatic deterioration that characterized the Eocene-Oligocene transition. These fossils provide data on temporal and paleobiogeographic aspects of early anthropoid evolution and significantly expand the record of stem anthropoid evolution in the Paleogene of South Asia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Unité Mixte de Recherche-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5554, c.c. 064, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France.
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24
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Rossie JB. Illuminating the origin of anthropoids. Evol Anthropol 2005. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.20042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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25
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TABUCE RODOLPHE, MARIVAUX LAURENT. Mammalian interchanges between Africa and Eurasia: an analysis of temporal constraints on plausible anthropoid dispersals during the Paleogene. ANTHROPOL SCI 2005. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.04s004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- RODOLPHE TABUCE
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution (ISEM, CNRS-UMR 5554), C.C. 064, Université Montpellier II
| | - LAURENT MARIVAUX
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution (ISEM, CNRS-UMR 5554), C.C. 064, Université Montpellier II
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26
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Miller ER, Gunnell GF, Martin RD. Deep Time and the Search for Anthropoid Origins. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2005; Suppl 41:60-95. [PMID: 16369958 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Recent fossil discoveries, phylogenetic analyses, revised reconstructions of continental drift, and accumulating molecular evidence have all yielded new information relating to anthropoid origins within the broader context of primate evolution. There is an emerging consensus among molecular studies that four superorders of eutherian mammals can be recognized: Afrotheria, Euarchontoglires (to which primates belong), Laurasiatheria, and Xenarthra. Overall, molecular phylogenies for mammals agree with some statistical analyses of the primate fossil record in indicating an early origin for primates around 85 Ma ago, and the divergence of haplorhines and strepsirrhines at ca. 77 Ma. Such an ancient date for the origin of haplorhines is some 17 Ma prior to the first known possible primate, and some 22 Ma before the earliest fossil evidence of undoubted euprimates. Because anthropoid fossils date back at least to the late Eocene and perhaps to the middle Eocene, and given indications of an early origin for primates, it is unlikely that ancestral anthropoids arose within any other currently known clade of fossil primates (adapiforms, omomyiforms, strepsirrhines, or tarsiiforms). Implications of new molecular, morphological, and biogeographic lines of evidence are explored with respect to the likely time and place of the origin of anthropoids. Four competing, testable hypotheses are reviewed in detail: 1) the Paratethyan hypothesis, 2) the continental Asian hypothesis, 3) the Indo-Madagascar hypothesis, and 4) the African hypothesis. A case is made that current evidence best supports a relatively ancient Gondwanan origin for primates, as well as a Gondwanan (African or Indo-Madagascan) origin for anthropoids at least as old as that of any other currently documented major primate clade. Available fossil evidence at present seems to be most compatible with the African hypothesis, but it is noteworthy that primates are included not in Afrotheria but in Euarchontoglires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen R Miller
- Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109-7807, USA.
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27
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KAY RICHARDF. A synopsis of the phylogeny and paleobiology of Amphipithecidae, South Asian middle and late Eocene primates. ANTHROPOL SCI 2005. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.04s005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- RICHARD F. KAY
- Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Box 3170, Duke University Medical Center
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28
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MAUNG MAUNG, HTIKE THAUNG, TSUBAMOTO TAKEHISA, SUZUKI HISASHI, SEIN CHIT, EGI NAOKO, WIN ZAW, THEIN ZINMAUNGMAUNG, AUNG AYEKO. Stratigraphy of the primate-bearing beds of the Eocene Pondaung Formation at Paukkaung area, Myanmar. ANTHROPOL SCI 2005. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.04s002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- MAUNG MAUNG
- Department of Geology, University of Mandalay
| | - THAUNG HTIKE
- Department of Biosphere-Geosphere System Science, Graduate School of Informatics, Okayama University of Science
| | | | | | - CHIT SEIN
- Department of Geology, University of Yangon
| | - NAOKO EGI
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
| | - ZAW WIN
- Department of Geology, University of Mandalay
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TAKAI MASANARU, SEIN CHIT, TSUBAMOTO TAKEHISA, EGI NAOKO, MAUNG MAUNG, SHIGEHARA NOBUO. A new eosimiid from the latest middle Eocene in Pondaung, central Myanmar. ANTHROPOL SCI 2005. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.04s003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - CHIT SEIN
- Department of Geology, Hinthada University
| | | | - NAOKO EGI
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
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30
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EGI NAOKO, TUN SOETHURA, TAKAI MASANARU, SHIGEHARA NOBUO, TSUBAMOTO TAKEHISA. Geographical and body size distributions of the Pondaung primates with a comment on the taxonomic assignment of NMMP 20, postcranium of an amphipithecid. ANTHROPOL SCI 2004. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.00076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- NAOKO EGI
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Department of Zoology, Kyoto University
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31
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Kay RF, Schmitt D, Vinyard CJ, Perry JMG, Shigehara N, Takai M, Egi N. The paleobiology of Amphipithecidae, South Asian late Eocene primates. J Hum Evol 2004; 46:3-25. [PMID: 14698683 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Analysis of the teeth, orbital, and gnathic regions of the skull, and fragmentary postcranial bones provides evidence for reconstructing a behavioral profile of Amphipithecidae: Pondaungia, Amphipithecus, Myanmarpithecus (late middle Eocene, Myanmar) and Siamopithecus (late Eocene, Thailand). At 5-8 kg, Pondaungia, Amphipithecus, and Siamopithecus are perhaps the largest known Eocene primates. The dental and mandibular anatomy suggest that large-bodied amphipithecids were hard-object feeders. The shape of the mandibular corpus and stiffened symphysis suggest an ability to resist large internal loads during chewing and to recruit significant amounts of muscle forces from both the chewing and non-chewing sides of the jaw so as to increase bite force during mastication. The large spatulate upper central incisor of Pondaungia and projecting robust canines of all the larger amphipithecids suggest that incisal food preparation was important. The molars of Siamopithecus, Amphipithecus, and Pondaungia have weak shearing crests. This, and the thick molar enamel found in Pondaungia, suggests a diet of seeds and other hard objects low in fiber. In contrast, Myanmarpithecus was smaller, about 1-2 kg; its cheek teeth suggest a frugivorous diet and do not imply seed eating. Postcranial bones (humerus, ulna, and calcaneus) of a single large amphipithecid individual from Myanmar suggest an arboreal quadrupedal locomotor style like that of howler monkeys or lorises. The humeral head is rounded, proximally oriented, and the tuberosities are low indicating an extremely mobile glenohumeral joint. The great thickness of the midshaft cortical bone of the humerus implies enhanced ability to resist bending and torsion, as seen among slow moving primate quadrupeds. The elbow joint exhibits articular features for enhanced stability in habitually flexed positions, features also commonly found in slow moving arboreal quadrupeds. The short distal load arm of the calcaneus is consistent with, but not exclusive to, slow, arboreal quadrupedalism, and suggests no reliance on habitual leaping.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard F Kay
- Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham NC 27710, USA.
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32
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Marivaux L, Chaimanee Y, Ducrocq S, Marandat B, Sudre J, Soe AN, Tun ST, Htoon W, Jaeger JJ. The anthropoid status of a primate from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation (Central Myanmar): tarsal evidence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2003; 100:13173-8. [PMID: 14595009 PMCID: PMC263736 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2332542100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Primate dental and postcranial remains from the Eocene Pondaung Formation (Myanmar) have been the subject of considerable confusion since their initial discoveries, and their anthropoid status has been widely debated. We report here a well preserved primate talus discovered in the Segyauk locality near Mogaung that displays derived anatomical features typical of haplorhines, notably anthropoids, and lacks strepsirhine synapomorphies. Linear discriminant and parsimony analyses indicate that the talus from Myanmar is more similar structurally to those of living and extinct anthropoids than to those of adapiforms, and its overall osteological characteristics further point to arboreal quadrupedalism. Regressions of talar dimensions versus body mass in living primates indicate that this foot bone might have belonged to Amphipithecus. This evidence supports hypotheses favoring anthropoid affinities for the large-bodied primates from Pondaung and runs contrary to the hypothesis that Pondaungia and Amphipithecus are strepsirhine adapiforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (Unité Mixte de Recherche 5554-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), C.C. 064, Université Montpellier II, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier, France.
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33
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Ciochon RL, Gunnell GF. Chronology of primate discoveries in Myanmar: influences on the anthropoid origins debate. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2003; Suppl 35:2-35. [PMID: 12653307 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.10175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The history of primate paleontology in Asia is long and complex, beginning with the first discoveries of fossil primates on the Indian subcontinent in the early 1830's. The first Eocene mammals from Asia were collected in Myanmar and described in 1916, while the first primates, Pondaungia and Amphipithecus, were described in 1927 and 1937, respectively, both from the Pondaung Formation in Myanmar. For the next 60 years, these two Pondaung taxa remained as the only known Eocene primates from Myanmar and one of the few records of Eocene primates from all of Asia. Taxonomically, Pondaungia and Amphipithecus were linked with a number of different groups, including archaic, hoofed ungulates (condylarths), adapiform primates, omomyid primates, and anthropoids. While no consensus existed, Pondaungia and Amphipithecus were most commonly compared with anthropoids. Beginning in the late 1990s, new primates were discovered in Myanmar, including smaller-bodied forms such as Bahinia and Myanmarpithecus. Also, new and better specimens of the larger-bodied Pondaungia and Amphipithecus began to appear, including the first cranial and postcranial fragments. Evaluations based on these new specimens, especially the postcrania, indicate that the two larger-bodied Myanmar taxa are adapiform primates that show their closest affinities to North American notharctines. The smaller-bodied taxa remain enigmatic, but may share their closest affinities with North American and Asian omomyid primates and Asian Tarsius. None of the known Asian primate taxa appear closely related to African anthropoids, which suggests that true anthropoids did not reach Asia until the latest Oligocene or earliest Miocene. These facts make an Asian origin for Anthropoidea unlikely. Additional and earlier evidence from both Asia and Africa is required before the ultimate origin of anthropoids can be determined. It appears possible that true anthropoids were an ancient radiation that may have been part of a Gondwanan (southern hemisphere) community that is, at present, poorly sampled and little understood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Russell L Ciochon
- Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1322, USA.
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34
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Takai M, Shigehara N, Egi N, Tsubamoto T. Endocranial cast and morphology of the olfactory bulb of Amphipithecus mogaungensis (latest middle Eocene of Myanmar). Primates 2003; 44:137-44. [PMID: 12687477 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-002-0027-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2002] [Accepted: 12/14/2002] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
A detailed endocranial cast of the olfactory bulb of Amphipithecus mogaungensis, a latest middle Eocene primate from the Pondaung Formation (Myanmar), was studied in comparison with some Paleogene primates, the olfactory bulb of which has been reported. The olfactory bulb of Amphipithecus is located just anterior to the postorbital constriction, that is, within the interorbital septum. It is relatively large and pedunculate, not overlapped by the frontal lobe, and consists of two parallel aligned bodies. The relative volume of the olfactory bulb shows the same pattern as in adapiforms, but the location and bilobed form are more similar to those of omomyoids than of adapiforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masanaru Takai
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan.
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35
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TSUBAMOTO T, TAKAI M, EGI N, SHIGEHARA N. Mammalian Faunal Change in Eocene Asia and the Pondaung Mammal Fauna of Myanmar. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2003. [DOI: 10.2354/psj.19.43] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Naoko EGI
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University
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36
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Holroyd PA, Ciochon RL, Gunnell GF, Kay RF, Takai M, Godinot M. What's in a name? Family-group taxonomy of larger-bodied Southeast Asian Eocene primates. J Hum Evol 2002; 43:755-8. [PMID: 12457857 DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2002.0589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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37
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New eosimiid primate from Myanmar. J Hum Evol 2002. [DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2002.0571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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38
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Ciochon RL, Gunnell GF. Eocene primates from Myanmar: Historical perspectives on the origin of Anthropoidea. Evol Anthropol 2002. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.10032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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39
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Shigehara N, Takai M, Kay RF, Aung AK, Soe AN, Tun ST, Tsubamato T, Thein T. The upper dentition and face of Pondaungia cotteri from central Myanmar. J Hum Evol 2002; 43:143-66. [PMID: 12160713 DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2002.0567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
A specimen of Pondaungia from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation in central Myanmar includes maxillary fragments and parts of the dentition, some hitherto undocumented, including the upper central incisor, canine, premolars and molars. Pondaungia has a large spatulate I1 closely resembling that of crown anthropoids. It possesses a stout projecting upper canine (like anthropoids) but differs from that tooth of crown anthropoids in lacking a strong mesial groove. There are three upper premolars of which P2 is distinctly smaller than P3 or P4. P3 has a buccolingually oriented mesial profile and an inflated distal profile resembling that of parapithecids and crown anthropoids. The distolingual molar cusp is a hypocone and is not homologus with the "pseudohypocone" of notharctines because the cusp is neither twinned with the protocone nor attached to a Nannopithex-fold. Pondaungia has a stout zygomatic root with a strongly demarcated muscle scar for the superficial masseter situated well above the occlusal plane. The inferior orbital margin is not preserved but the inflated suborbital region allows for the inference that the orbit was small. This specimen is not sufficiently well preserved to identify if there was postorbital closure. However, a specimen of the frontal bone of Amphipithecus shows that its orbital septum was absent or poorly developed. If, as commonly supposed, Pondaungia andAmphipithecus are sister taxa, postorbital closure was probably absent in Pondaungia. The large incisors, molars with poorly developed crests and thick enamel, together with the stoutly developed and strong dorsal component of the force vector of the superficial masseter muscle suggest that Pondaungia had a diet low in fiber, but that included hard food objects like nuts or seeds. The present material adds to the structural similarities between Pondaungia and anthropoids, but whether these similarities are due to shared descent or functional and adaptive convergence remains unresolved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nobuo Shigehara
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama 484-8506, Japan
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40
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Tsubamoto T, Takai M, Shigehara N, Egi N, Tun ST, Aung AK, Maung M, Danhara T, Suzuki H. Fission-track zircon age of the Eocene Pondaung Formation, Myanmar. J Hum Evol 2002; 42:361-9. [PMID: 11908952 DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2001.0543] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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41
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Ciochon RL, Gingerich PD, Gunnell GF, Simons EL. Primate postcrania from the late middle Eocene of Myanmar. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2001; 98:7672-7. [PMID: 11438722 PMCID: PMC35400 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.051003298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/02/2001] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Fossil primates have been known from the late middle to late Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar since the description of Pondaungia cotteri in 1927. Three additional primate taxa, Amphipithecus mogaungensis, Bahinia pondaungensis and Myanmarpithecus yarshensis, were subsequently described. These primates are represented mostly by fragmentary dental and cranial remains. Here we describe the first primate postcrania from Myanmar, including a complete left humerus, a fragmentary right humerus, parts of left and right ulnae, and the distal half of a left calcaneum, all representing one individual. We assign this specimen to a large species of Pondaungia based on body size and the known geographic distribution and diversity of Myanmar primates. Body weight estimates of Pondaungia range from 4,000 to 9,000 g, based on humeral length, humeral midshaft diameter, and tooth area by using extant primate regressions. The humerus and ulna indicate that Pondaungia was capable of a wide variety of forelimb movements, with great mobility at the shoulder joint. Morphology of the distal calcaneus indicates that the hind feet were mobile at the transverse tarsal joint. Postcrania of Pondaungia present a mosaic of features, some shared in common with notharctine and adapine adapiforms, some shared with extant lorises and cebids, some shared with fossil anthropoids, and some unique. Overall, Pondaungia humeral and calcaneal morphology is most consistent with that of other known adapiforms. It does not support the inclusion of Pondaungia in Anthropoidea.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Ciochon
- Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
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