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Marivaux L, Benammi M, Baidder L, Saddiqi O, Adnet S, Charruault AL, Tabuce R, Yans J, Benammi M. A new primate community from the earliest Oligocene of the Atlantic margin of Northwest Africa: Systematic, paleobiogeographic, and paleoenvironmental implications. J Hum Evol 2024; 193:103548. [PMID: 38896896 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 05/14/2024] [Accepted: 05/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
We report a new Paleogene primate community discovered in the uppermost part of the Samlat Formation outcropping on the continental shore of the Rio de Oro, east of the Dakhla peninsula (in the south of Morocco, near the northern border of Mauritania). Fossils consist of isolated teeth, which were extracted by wet screening of estuarine sediments (DAK C2) dating from the earliest Oligocene (ca. 33.5 Ma). These dental remains testify to the presence of at least eight primate species, documenting distinct families, four of which are among the Anthropoidea (Oligopithecidae [Catopithecus aff. browni], Propliopithecidae [?Propliopithecus sp.], Parapithecidae [Abuqatrania cf. basiodontos], and Afrotarsiidae [Afrotarsius sp.]) and four in the Strepsirrhini (a Djebelemuridae [cf. 'Anchomomys' milleri], a Galagidae [Wadilemur cf. elegans], a possible lorisiform [Orogalago saintexuperyi gen. et sp. nov.], and a strepsirrhine of indeterminate affinities [Orolemur mermozi gen. et sp. nov.]). This record of various primates at Dakhla represents the first Oligocene primate community from Northwest Africa, especially from the Atlantic margin of that landmass. Considering primates plus rodents (especially hystricognaths), the taxonomic proximity at the generic (even specific) level between DAK C2 (Dakhla) and the famous Egyptian fossil-bearing localities of the Jebel Qatrani Formation (Fayum Depression), either dating from the latest Eocene (L-41) or from the early Oligocene, suggests the existence of an east-west 'trans-North African' environmental continuum during the latest Eocene-earliest Oligocene time interval. The particularly diverse mammal fauna from DAK C2, recorded within the time window of global climate deterioration characterizing the Eocene/Oligocene transition, suggests that this tropical region of northwest Africa was seemingly less affected, if at all, by the cooling and associated paleoenvironmental and biotic changes documented at that time or at least that the effects were delayed. The expected densely forested paleoenvironment bordering the western margin of North Africa at the beginning of the early Oligocene probably offered better tropical refugia than higher latitudes or more inland areas during the cooling episode.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), c.c. 064, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
| | - Mohamed Benammi
- Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université IBN Tofaïl, BP 133, 14000 Kénitra, Morocco
| | - Lahssen Baidder
- Laboratoire Géosciences, Faculté des Sciences Aïn Chock, Université Hassan-II-Casablanca, BP 5366, Maârif, 20100 Casablanca, Morocco
| | - Omar Saddiqi
- Laboratoire Géosciences, Faculté des Sciences Aïn Chock, Université Hassan-II-Casablanca, BP 5366, Maârif, 20100 Casablanca, Morocco
| | - Sylvain Adnet
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), c.c. 064, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
| | - Anne-Lise Charruault
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), c.c. 064, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
| | - Rodolphe Tabuce
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR 5554, CNRS/UM/IRD/EPHE), c.c. 064, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
| | - Johan Yans
- Departement of Geology, Institute of Life Earth and Environment (ILEE), Université de Namur, rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium
| | - Mouloud Benammi
- Laboratoire Paléontologie Évolution Paléoécosystèmes Paléoprimatologie (PALEVOPRIM, UMR-CNRS 7262), Université de Poitiers UFR SFA, 6 Rue Michel Brunet, F-86022 Poitiers Cedex, France
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DeMers AC, Hunter JP. Dental complexity and diet in amniotes: A meta-analysis. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0292358. [PMID: 38306370 PMCID: PMC10836679 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Tooth morphology is among the most well-studied indicators of ecology. For decades, researchers have examined the gross morphology and wear patterns of teeth as indicators of diet, and recent advances in scanning and computer analysis have allowed the development of new and more quantitative measures of tooth morphology. One of the most popular of these new methods is orientation patch count (OPC). OPC, a measure of surface complexity, was originally developed to distinguish the more complex tooth crowns of herbivores from the less complex tooth crowns of faunivores. OPC and a similar method derived from it, orientation patch count rotated (OPCR), have become commonplace in analyses of both modern and fossil amniote dietary ecology. The widespread use of these techniques makes it possible to now re-assess the utility of OPC and OPCR. Here, we undertake a comprehensive review of OPC(R) and diet and perform a meta-analysis to determine the overall difference in complexity between herbivores and faunivores. We find that the relationship between faunivore and herbivore OPC or OPCR values differs substantially across studies, and although some support the initial assessment of greater complexity in herbivores, others do not. Our meta-analysis does not support an overall pattern of greater complexity in herbivores than faunivores across terrestrial amniotes. It appears that the relationship of OPC or OPCR to diet is taxon-specific and dependent on the type of faunivory of the group in question, with insectivores often having values similar to herbivores. We suggest extreme caution in comparing OPC and OPCR values across studies and offer suggestions for how OPCR can constructively be used in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anessa C DeMers
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - John P Hunter
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Newark, Ohio, United States of America
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Towle I, Borths MR, Loch C. Tooth chipping patterns and dental caries suggest a soft fruit diet in early anthropoids. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2024; 183:e24884. [PMID: 38093580 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 11/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Fossils from the Fayum Depression, Egypt, are crucial for understanding anthropoid evolution due to the abundance of taxa and the time interval they represent (late Eocene to early Oligocene). Dietary and foraging behavioral interpretations suggest fruits were their dominant food source, although hard foods (e.g., seeds and nuts) and leaves could have been important dietary components for particular groups. In this study, we compare dental chipping patterns in five Fayum primate genera with chipping data for extant primates, to assess potential hard object feeding in early anthropoids. MATERIALS AND METHODS Original specimens were studied (Aegyptopithecus: n = 100 teeth; Parapithecus: n = 72, Propliopithecus: n = 99, Apidium: n = 82; Catopithecus: n = 68); with the number, severity, and position of chips recorded. Dental caries was also recorded, due to its association with soft fruit consumption in extant primates. RESULTS Tooth chipping was low across all five genera studied, with a pooled chipping prevalence of 5% (21/421). When split into the three anthropoid families represented, chipping prevalence ranged from 2.6% (4/154) in Parapithecidae, 6% (12/199) in Propliopithecidae, and 7.4% (5/68) in Oligopithecidae. Three carious lesions were identified in Propliopithecidae. DISCUSSION The chipping prevalence is low when compared to extant anthropoids (range from 4% to 40%) and is consistent with a predominantly soft fruit diet, but not with habitual hard food mastication. The presence of caries supports consumption of soft, sugary fruits, at least in Propliopithecidae. Our results add support for low dietary diversity in early anthropoids, with soft fruits as likely dominant food sources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian Towle
- Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Matthew R Borths
- Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Carolina Loch
- Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
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Weppe R, Condamine FL, Guinot G, Maugoust J, Orliac MJ. Drivers of the artiodactyl turnover in insular western Europe at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2309945120. [PMID: 38109543 PMCID: PMC10756263 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2309945120] [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: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Simultaneously investigating the effects of abiotic and biotic factors on diversity dynamics is essential to understand the evolutionary history of clades. The Grande Coupure corresponds to a major faunal turnover at the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) (~34.1 to 33.55 Mya) and is defined in western Europe as an extinction of insular European mammals coupled with the arrival of crown clades from Asia. Here, we focused on the species-rich group of endemic European artiodactyls to determine the drivers of the Grande Coupure during the major environmental disruptions at the EOT. Using Bayesian birth-death models, we analyzed an original high-resolution fossil dataset (90 species, >2,100 occurrences) from southwestern France (Quercy area) and estimated the regional diversification and diversity dynamics of endemic and immigrant artiodactyls. We show that the endemic artiodactyl radiation was mainly related to the Eocene tropical conditions, combined with biotic controls on speciation and clade-related diversity dependence. We further highlight that the major environmental changes at the transition (77% of species became extinct) and the concurrent increase in seasonality in Europe during the Oligocene were likely the main drivers of their decline. Surprisingly, our results do not support the widely-held hypothesis of active competition between endemic and immigrant artiodactyls but rather suggest a passive or opportunistic replacement by immigrants, which is further supported by morphological clustering of specific ecological traits across the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Our analyses provide insights into the evolutionary and ecological processes driving the diversification and decline of mammalian clades during a major biological and climatic crisis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romain Weppe
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier Cedex 534095, France
| | - Fabien L. Condamine
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier Cedex 534095, France
| | - Guillaume Guinot
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier Cedex 534095, France
| | - Jacob Maugoust
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier Cedex 534095, France
| | - Maëva J. Orliac
- Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier Cedex 534095, France
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Procheş Ş, Watkeys MK, Ramsay LF, Cowling RM. Why we should be looking for longitudinal patterns in biodiversity. Front Ecol Evol 2023. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1032827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Our understanding of global diversity patterns relies overwhelmingly on ecological and evolutionary correlates of latitude, and largely ignores longitude. However, the two major explanations of biodiversity patterns – energy and stability – are confounded across latitudes, and longitude offers potential solutions. Recent literature shows that the global biogeography of the Cenozoic world is structured by longitudinal barriers. In a few well-studied regions, such as South Africa’s Cape, the Himalayas and the Amazon-Andes continuum, there are strong longitudinal gradients in biodiversity. Often, such gradients occur where high and low past climatic velocities are juxtaposed, and there is clear evidence of higher biodiversity at the climatically-stable end. Understanding longitudinal biodiversity variations more widely can offer new insights towards biodiversity conservation in the face of anthropogenic climatic change.
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Heritage S, Seiffert ER. Total evidence time-scaled phylogenetic and biogeographic models for the evolution of sea cows (Sirenia, Afrotheria). PeerJ 2022; 10:e13886. [PMID: 36042864 PMCID: PMC9420408 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Molecular phylogenetic studies that have included sirenians from the genera Trichechus, Dugong, and Hydrodamalis have resolved their interrelationships but have yielded divergence age estimates that are problematically discordant. The ages of these lineage splits have profound implications for how to interpret the sirenian fossil record-including clade membership, biogeographic patterns, and correlations with Earth history events. In an effort to address these issues, here we present a total evidence phylogenetic analysis of Sirenia that includes living and fossil species and applies Bayesian tip-dating methods to estimate their interrelationships and divergence times. In addition to extant sirenians, our dataset includes 56 fossil species from 106 dated localities and numerous afrotherian outgroup taxa. Genetic, morphological, temporal, and biogeographic data are assessed simultaneously to bring all available evidence to bear on sirenian phylogeny. The resulting time-tree is then used for Bayesian geocoordinates reconstruction analysis, which models ancestral geographic areas at splits throughout the phylogeny, thereby allowing us to infer the direction and timing of dispersals. Our results suggest that Pan-Sirenia arose in North Africa during the latest Paleocene and that the Eocene evolution of stem sirenians was primarily situated in the Tethyan realm. In the late Eocene, some lineages moved into more northern European latitudes, an area that became the source region for a key trans-Atlantic dispersal towards the Caribbean and northern-adjacent west Atlantic. This event led to the phylogenetic and biogeographic founding of crown Sirenia with the Dugongidae-Trichechidae split occurring at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (~33.9 Ma), temporally coincident with the onset of dropping global sea levels and temperatures. This region became the nexus of sirenian diversification and supported taxonomically-rich dugongid communities until the earliest Pliocene. The Dugonginae-Hydrodamalinae split occurred near Florida during the early Miocene (~21.2 Ma) and was followed by a west-bound dispersal that gave rise to the Pacific hydrodamalines. The late middle Miocene (~12.2 Ma) split of Dugong from all other dugongines also occurred near Florida and our analyses suggest that the Indo-Pacific distribution of modern dugongs is the result of a trans-Pacific dispersal. From at least the early Miocene, trichechid evolution was based entirely in South America, presumably within the Pebas Wetlands System. We infer that the eventual establishment of Amazon drainage into the South Atlantic allowed the dispersal of Trichechus out of South America no earlier than the mid-Pliocene. Our analyses provide a new temporal and biogeographic framework for understanding major events in sirenian evolution and their possible relationships to oceanographic and climatic changes. These hypotheses can be further tested with the recovery and integration of new fossil evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven Heritage
- Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Erik R. Seiffert
- Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Mammalogy, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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López-Aguirre C, Lang MM, Silcox MT. Diet drove brain and dental morphological coevolution in strepsirrhine primates. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269041. [PMID: 35666739 PMCID: PMC9170099 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of the remarkably complex primate brain has been a topic of great interest for decades. Multiple factors have been proposed to explain the comparatively larger primate brain (relative to body mass), with recent studies indicating diet has the greatest explanatory power. Dietary specialisations also correlate with dental adaptations, providing a potential evolutionary link between brain and dental morphological evolution. However, unambiguous evidence of association between brain and dental phenotypes in primates remains elusive. Here we investigate the effect of diet on variation in primate brain and dental morphology and test whether the two anatomical systems coevolved. We focused on the primate suborder Strepsirrhini, a living primate group that occupies a very wide range of dietary niches. By making use of both geometric morphometrics and dental topographic analysis, we extend the study of brain-dental ecomorphological evolution beyond measures of size. After controlling for allometry and evolutionary relatedness, differences in brain and dental morphology were found between dietary groups, and brain and dental morphologies were found to covary. Historical trajectories of morphological diversification revealed a strong integration in the rates of brain and dental evolution and similarities in their modes of evolution. Combined, our results reveal an interplay between brain and dental ecomorphological adaptations throughout strepsirrhine evolution that can be linked to diet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilo López-Aguirre
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - Madlen M. Lang
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Mary T. Silcox
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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