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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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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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3
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Rust K, Ni X, Tietjen K, Beard KC. Phylogeny and paleobiogeography of the enigmatic North American primate Ekgmowechashala illuminated by new fossils from Nebraska (USA) and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (China). J Hum Evol 2023; 185:103452. [PMID: 37935595 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103452] [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: 04/19/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023]
Abstract
Ekgmowechashala is a poorly documented but very distinctive primate known only from the late early Oligocene (early Arikareean) of western North America. Because of its highly autapomorphous dentition and spatiotemporal isolation, the phylogenetic and biogeographic affinities of Ekgmowechashala have long been debated. Here, we describe the oldest known fossils of Ekgmowechashala from the Brown Siltstone Beds of the Brule Formation, White River Group of western Nebraska. We also describe a new ekgmowechashaline taxon from the Nadu Formation (late Eocene) in the Baise Basin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that North American Ekgmowechashala and the new Chinese taxon are sister taxa that are nested within a radiation of southern Asian adapiforms that also includes Gatanthropus, Muangthanhinius, and Bugtilemur. The new Chinese ekgmowechashaline helps fill the considerable disparity in dental morphology between Ekgmowechashala and more primitive ekgmowechashalids known from southern Asia. Our study underscores the fundamental role of southern Asia as a refugium for multiple primate clades during the cooler and drier climatic regime that prevailed after the Eocene-Oligocene transition. The colonization of North America by Ekgmowechashala helps define the beginning of the Arikareean Land Mammal Age and corresponds to an example of the Lazarus effect, whereby a taxon (in this case, the order Primates) reappears suddenly in the fossil record after a lengthy hiatus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen Rust
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561, USA
| | - Xijun Ni
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate, Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xi Zhi Men Wai Street, Beijing, 100044, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, 100049, Beijing, China
| | - Kristen Tietjen
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561, USA
| | - K Christopher Beard
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561, USA.
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4
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Marivaux L, Negri FR, Antoine PO, Stutz NS, Condamine FL, Kerber L, Pujos F, Ventura Santos R, Alvim AMV, Hsiou AS, Bissaro MC, Adami-Rodrigues K, Ribeiro AM. An eosimiid primate of South Asian affinities in the Paleogene of Western Amazonia and the origin of New World monkeys. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2301338120. [PMID: 37399374 PMCID: PMC10334725 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301338120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent fossil discoveries in Western Amazonia revealed that two distinct anthropoid primate clades of African origin colonized South America near the Eocene/Oligocene transition (ca. 34 Ma). Here, we describe a diminutive fossil primate from Brazilian Amazonia and suggest that, surprisingly, a third clade of anthropoids was involved in the Paleogene colonization of South America by primates. This new taxon, Ashaninkacebus simpsoni gen. et sp. nov., has strong dental affinities with Asian African stem anthropoids: the Eosimiiformes. Morphology-based phylogenetic analyses of early Old World anthropoids and extinct and extant New World monkeys (platyrrhines) support relationships of both Ashaninkacebus and Amamria (late middle Eocene, North Africa) to the South Asian Eosimiidae. Afro-Arabia, then a mega island, played the role of a biogeographic stopover between South Asia and South America for anthropoid primates and hystricognathous rodents. The earliest primates from South America bear little adaptive resemblance to later Oligocene-early Miocene platyrrhine monkeys, and the scarcity of available paleontological data precludes elucidating firmly their affinities with or within Platyrrhini. Nonetheless, these data shed light on some of their life history traits, revealing a particularly small body size and a diet consisting primarily of insects and possibly fruit, which would have increased their chances of survival on a natural floating island during this extraordinary over-water trip to South America from Africa. Divergence-time estimates between Old and New World taxa indicate that the transatlantic dispersal(s) could source in the intense flooding events associated with the late middle Eocene climatic optimum (ca. 40.5 Ma) in Western Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554, CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Université de Montpellier, 34095Montpellier, France
| | - Francisco R. Negri
- Laboratório de Paleontologia, Universidade Federal do Acre, 69980-000Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil
| | - Pierre-Olivier Antoine
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554, CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Université de Montpellier, 34095Montpellier, France
| | - Narla S. Stutz
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554, CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Université de Montpellier, 34095Montpellier, France
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Fabien L. Condamine
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554, CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Université de Montpellier, 34095Montpellier, France
| | - Leonardo Kerber
- Centro de Apoio à Pesquisa Paleontológica da Quarta Colônia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 97230-000São João do Polêsine, Brazil
| | - François Pujos
- Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales, CONICET–Universidad Nacional de Cuyo-Mendoza, 5500Mendoza, Argentina
| | - Roberto Ventura Santos
- Laboratório de Geocronologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-000Brasília, Brazil
| | - André M. V. Alvim
- Laboratório de Geocronologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-000Brasília, Brazil
| | - Annie S. Hsiou
- Laboratório de Paleontologia, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
| | - Marcos C. Bissaro
- Laboratório de Paleontologia, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
| | - Karen Adami-Rodrigues
- Núcleo de Estudos em Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Centro das Engenharias, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, 96010-020Pelotas, Brazil
| | - Ana Maria Ribeiro
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Seção de Paleontologia, Museu de Ciências Naturais, Secretaria do Meio Ambiente e Infraestrutura, 90690-000Porto Alegre, Brazil
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Marivaux L, Boivin M. Emergence of hystricognathous rodents: Palaeogene fossil record, phylogeny, dental evolution and historical biogeography. Zool J Linn Soc 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
AbstractAlthough phylogenetic trees imply Asia as the ancestral homeland of the Hystricognathi clade (Rodentia: Ctenohystrica), curiously the oldest known fossil occurrences of hystricognathous rodents are not from Asia, but from Africa and South America, where they appear suddenly in the fossil record of both landmasses by the Late Middle Eocene. Here we performed cladistic and Bayesian (standard and tip-dating analyses) assessments of the dental evidence documenting early ctenohystricans, including several Asian ‘ctenodactyloids’, virtually all Palaeogene Asian and African hystricognaths known thus far and two representatives of the earliest known South American hystricognaths. Our results provide a phylogenetic context of early hystricognaths (with implications on systematics) and suggest that some Eocene Asian ‘ctenodactyloids’ could be considered as stem hystricognaths and pre-hystricognaths, although they were not recognized as such originally. However, this view does not fill the gap of the Eocene Asian hystricognath record, as the proposed results imply many ghost lineages extending back to the Middle Eocene for several Asian and African taxa. They also imply a complex early historical biogeography of the group, involving multiple dispersal events from Asia to Africa (and possibly from Africa back to Asia) and then to South America sometime during the Middle Eocene. Based on these phylogenetic considerations, we discuss the emergence of hystricognathous rodents from a morpho-anatomical perspective by analysing the differentiation of their masticatory apparatus and chewing movements, notably through the evolution of their dental patterns.
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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, France
| | - Myriam Boivin
- 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, France
- Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique (LPG, UMR 6112 CNRS, Université de Nantes), France
- Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas (INECOA), Universidad Nacional de Jujuy, CONICET, Argentina
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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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New euprimate postcrania from the early Eocene of Gujarat, India, and the strepsirrhine–haplorhine divergence. J Hum Evol 2016; 99:25-51. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2016] [Revised: 06/24/2016] [Accepted: 06/30/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Marivaux L, Adnet S, Altamirano-Sierra AJ, Boivin M, Pujos F, Ramdarshan A, Salas-Gismondi R, Tejada-Lara JV, Antoine PO. Neotropics provide insights into the emergence of New World monkeys: New dental evidence from the late Oligocene of Peruvian Amazonia. J Hum Evol 2016; 97:159-75. [PMID: 27457552 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2016] [Revised: 05/17/2016] [Accepted: 05/20/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Recent field efforts in Peruvian Amazonia (Contamana area, Loreto Department) have resulted in the discovery of a late Oligocene (ca. 26.5 Ma; Chambira Formation) fossil primate-bearing locality (CTA-61). In this paper, we analyze the primate material consisting of two isolated upper molars, the peculiar morphology of which allows us to describe a new medium-sized platyrrhine monkey: Canaanimico amazonensis gen. et sp. nov. In addition to the recent discovery of Perupithecus ucayaliensis, a primitive anthropoid taxon of African affinities from the alleged latest Eocene Santa Rosa locality (Peruvian Amazonia), the discovery of Canaanimico adds to the evidence that primates were well-established in the Amazonian Basin during the Paleogene. Our phylogenetic results based on dental evidence show that none of the early Miocene Patagonian taxa (Homunculus, Carlocebus, Soriacebus, Mazzonicebus, Dolichocebus, Tremacebus, and Chilecebus), the late Oligocene Bolivian Branisella, or the Peruvian Canaanimico, is nested within a crown platyrrhine clade. All these early taxa are closely related and considered here as stem Platyrrhini. Canaanimico is nested within the Patagonian Soriacebinae, and closely related to Soriacebus, thereby extending back the soriacebine lineage to 26.5 Ma. Given the limited dental evidence, it is difficult to assess if Canaanimico was engaged in a form of pitheciine-like seed predation as is observed in Soriacebus and Mazzonicebus, but dental microwear patterns recorded on one upper molar indicate that Canaanimico was possibly a fruit and hard-object eater. If Panamacebus, a recently discovered stem cebine from the early Miocene of Panama, indicates that the crown platyrrhine radiation was already well underway by the earliest Miocene, Canaanimico indicates in turn that the "homunculid" radiation (as a part of the stem radiation) was well underway by the late Oligocene. These new data suggest that the stem radiation likely occurred in the Neotropics during the Oligocene, and that several stem lineages independently reached Patagonia during the early Miocene. Finally, we are still faced with a "layered" pattern of platyrrhine evolution, but modified in terms of timing of cladogeneses. If the crown platyrrhine radiation occurred in the Neotropics around the Oligocene-Miocene transition (or at least during the earliest Miocene), it was apparently concomitant with the diversification of the latest stem forms in Patagonia.
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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.
| | - 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
| | - Ali J Altamirano-Sierra
- Departamento de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural - Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos (MUSM), Av. Arenales 1256, Lima 11, Peru
| | - Myriam Boivin
- 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
| | - François Pujos
- Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT-CONICET-Mendoza, Av. Ruiz Leal s/n, Parque Gral. San Martín, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
| | - Anusha Ramdarshan
- 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
| | - Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi
- 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; Departamento de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural - Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos (MUSM), Av. Arenales 1256, Lima 11, Peru
| | - Julia V Tejada-Lara
- Departamento de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural - Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos (MUSM), Av. Arenales 1256, Lima 11, Peru; Columbia University in the City of New York and Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Pierre-Olivier Antoine
- 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.
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Ni X, Li Q, Li L, Beard KC. Oligocene primates from China reveal divergence between African and Asian primate evolution. Science 2016; 352:673-7. [PMID: 27151861 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2016] [Accepted: 03/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Profound environmental and faunal changes are associated with climatic deterioration during the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) roughly 34 million years ago. Reconstructing how Asian primates responded to the EOT has been hindered by a sparse record of Oligocene primates on that continent. Here, we report the discovery of a diverse primate fauna from the early Oligocene of southern China. In marked contrast to Afro-Arabian Oligocene primate faunas, this Asian fauna is dominated by strepsirhines. There appears to be a strong break between Paleogene and Neogene Asian anthropoid assemblages. Asian and Afro-Arabian primate faunas responded differently to EOT climatic deterioration, indicating that the EOT functioned as a critical evolutionary filter constraining the subsequent course of primate evolution across the Old World.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xijun Ni
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xi Zhi Men Wai Street, Beijing, 100044, China. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
| | - Qiang Li
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xi Zhi Men Wai Street, Beijing, 100044, China. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Lüzhou Li
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xi Zhi Men Wai Street, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - K Christopher Beard
- Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, USA. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, USA
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11
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Chaimanee Y, Lazzari V, Benammi M, Euriat A, Jaeger JJ. A new small pliopithecoid primate from the Middle Miocene of Thailand. J Hum Evol 2015; 88:15-24. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2014] [Revised: 07/16/2015] [Accepted: 08/29/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Samuels JX, Albright LB, Fremd TJ. The last fossil primate in North America, new material of the enigmatic Ekgmowechashala from the Arikareean of Oregon. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2015; 158:43-54. [PMID: 26118778 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2015] [Revised: 05/01/2015] [Accepted: 05/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Primates were common in North America through most of the Eocene, but vanished in the Chadronian, about 35 million years ago. In the Arikareean, about 6 million years later, the enigmatic primate Ekgmowechashala appeared in the Great Plains and Oregon. This taxon shows little resemblance to other North American primates and its phylogenetic position has long been debated. New material of this taxon allows a revised assessment of its age and how it is related to other primates. METHODS Recently collected Ekgmowechashala specimens from the Turtle Cove Member of the John Day Formation in Oregon are described. These specimens are compared to previously collected material from South Dakota and Nebraska, as well as other fossil primates from North America and Asia. RESULTS Study of the John Day material allows diagnosis of a new, distinct species. Comparison of Ekgmowechashala to a pair of recently described Asian primates, Muangthanhinius and Bugtilemur, suggests that it is a strepsirrhine adapiform, rather than an omomyid. The well-defined stratigraphy and dated marker beds of the Turtle Cove Member provide a refined age for Ekgmowechashala occurrences in Oregon, during the Oligocene (early Arikareean). CONCLUSIONS The age and morphology of these ekgmowechashaline taxa suggest that the group originated in Asia and dispersed to North America in the Oligocene, after the extinction of other primates in North America. Contemporaneous occurrences of Ekgmowechashala in Oregon and the Great Plains indicate the last non-human primates vanished in North America about 26 million years ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua X Samuels
- National Park Service, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR, 97848
| | - L Barry Albright
- Department of Physics, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, 32224
| | - Theodore J Fremd
- National Park Service, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR, 97848.,Department of Geological Sciences, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403
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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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Marivaux L, Ramdarshan A, Essid EM, Marzougui W, Ammar HK, Lebrun R, Marandat B, Merzeraud G, Tabuce R, Vianey-Liaud M. Djebelemur, a tiny pre-tooth-combed primate from the Eocene of Tunisia: a glimpse into the origin of crown strepsirhines. PLoS One 2013; 8:e80778. [PMID: 24324627 PMCID: PMC3851781 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2013] [Accepted: 10/07/2013] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Molecular clock estimates of crown strepsirhine origins generally advocate an ancient antiquity for Malagasy lemuriforms and Afro-Asian lorisiforms, near the onset of the Tertiary but most often extending back to the Late Cretaceous. Despite their inferred early origin, the subsequent evolutionary histories of both groups (except for the Malagasy aye-aye lineage) exhibit a vacuum of lineage diversification during most part of the Eocene, followed by a relative acceleration in diversification from the late Middle Eocene. This early evolutionary stasis was tentatively explained by the possibility of unrecorded lineage extinctions during the early Tertiary. However, this prevailing molecular view regarding the ancient origin and early diversification of crown strepsirhines must be viewed with skepticism due to the new but still scarce paleontological evidence gathered in recent years. METHODOLOGICAL/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we describe new fossils attributable to Djebelemur martinezi, a≈50 Ma primate from Tunisia (Djebel Chambi). This taxon was originally interpreted as a cercamoniine adapiform based on limited information from its lower dentition. The new fossils provide anatomical evidence demonstrating that Djebelemur was not an adapiform but clearly a distant relative of lemurs, lorises and galagos. Cranial, dental and postcranial remains indicate that this diminutive primate was likely nocturnal, predatory (primarily insectivorous), and engaged in a form of generalized arboreal quadrupedalism with frequent horizontal leaping. Djebelemur did not have an anterior lower dentition as specialized as that characterizing most crown strepsirhines (i.e., tooth-comb), but it clearly exhibited a transformed antemolar pattern representing an early stage of a crown strepsirhine-like adaptation ("pre-tooth-comb"). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE These new fossil data suggest that the differentiation of the tooth-comb must postdate the djebelemurid divergence, a view which hence constrains the timing of crown strepsirhine origins to the Middle Eocene, and then precludes the existence of unrecorded lineage extinctions of tooth-combed primates during the earliest Tertiary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
| | - Anusha Ramdarshan
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
- Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | | | | | | | - Renaud Lebrun
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
| | - Bernard Marandat
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
| | - Gilles Merzeraud
- Géosciences Montpellier (UMR-CNRS 5243), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
| | - Rodolphe Tabuce
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
| | - Monique Vianey-Liaud
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISE-M, UMR-CNRS 5554), Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
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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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Cray J, Cooper GM, Mooney MP, Siegel MI. Ectocranial suture fusion in primates: pattern and phylogeny. J Morphol 2013; 275:342-7. [DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2012] [Revised: 04/11/2013] [Accepted: 09/04/2013] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- James Cray
- Departments of Oral Biology; Orthodontics, Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Orthopaedic Surgery, and Surgery-Plastic Surgery, Georgia Regents University; Augusta Georgia
| | - Gregory M. Cooper
- Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh and Pediatric Craniofacial Biology Laboratory; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
- Department of Bioengineering; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
- Department of Oral Biology; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
| | - Mark P. Mooney
- Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh and Pediatric Craniofacial Biology Laboratory; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
- Department of Oral Biology; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
- Department of Anthropology and Orthodontics; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
| | - Michael I. Siegel
- Department of Anthropology and Orthodontics; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
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Gladman JT, Boyer DM, Simons EL, Seiffert ER. A calcaneus attributable to the primitive late Eocene anthropoid Proteopithecus sylviae: phenetic affinities and phylogenetic implications. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2013; 151:372-97. [PMID: 23794332 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2012] [Accepted: 02/24/2013] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
A well-preserved calcaneus referrable to Proteopithecus sylviae from the late Eocene Quarry L-41 in the Fayum Depression, Egypt, provides new evidence relevant to this taxon's uncertain phylogenetic position. We assess morphological affinities of the new specimen using three-dimensional geometric morphometric analyses with a comparative sample of primate calcanei representing major extinct and extant radiations (n = 58 genera, 106 specimens). Our analyses reveal that the calcaneal morphology of Proteopithecus is most similar to that of the younger Fayum parapithecid Apidium. Principal components analysis places Apidium and Proteopithecus in an intermediate position between primitive euprimates and crown anthropoids, based primarily on landmark configurations corresponding to moderate distal elongation, a more distal position of the peroneal tubercle, and a relatively "unflexed" calcaneal body. Proteopithecus and Apidium are similar to cercopithecoids and some omomyiforms in having an ectal facet that is more tightly curved, along with a larger degree of proximal calcaneal elongation, whereas other Fayum anthropoids, platyrrhines and adapiforms have a more open facet with less proximal elongation. The similarity to cercopithecoids is most plausibly interpreted as convergence given the less tightly curved ectal facets of stem catarrhines. The primary similarities between Proteopithecus and platyrrhines are mainly in the moderate distal elongation and the more distal position of the peroneal tubercle, both of which are not unique to these groups. Proteopithecus and Apidium exhibit derived anthropoid features, but also a suite of primitive retentions. The calcaneal morphology of Proteopithecus is consistent with our cladistic analysis, which places proteopithecids as a sister group of Parapithecoidea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin T Gladman
- Department of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016-4309, USA.
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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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20
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Gebo DL, Dagosto M, Ni X, Beard KC. Species diversity and postcranial anatomy of eocene primates from Shanghuang, China. Evol Anthropol 2013; 21:224-38. [PMID: 23280920 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The middle Eocene Shanghuang fissure-fillings, located in southern Jiangsu Province in China near the coastal city of Shanghai (Fig. 1), contain a remarkably diverse array of fossil primates that provide a unique window into the complex role played by Asia during early primate evolution.1 Compared to contemporaneous localities in North America or Europe, the ancient primate community sampled at the Shanghuang fissure-fillings is unique in several ways. Although Shanghuang has some typical Eocene primates (Omomyidae and Adapoidea), it also contains the earliest known members of the Tarsiidae and Anthropoidea (Fig. 2), and some new taxa that are not as yet known from elsewhere. It exhibits a large number of primate species, at least 18, most of which are very small (15-500 g), including some of the smallest primates that have ever been recovered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L Gebo
- Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, IL, USA.
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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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Maiolino S, Boyer DM, Bloch JI, Gilbert CC, Groenke J. Evidence for a grooming claw in a North American adapiform primate: implications for anthropoid origins. PLoS One 2012; 7:e29135. [PMID: 22253707 PMCID: PMC3254620 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2011] [Accepted: 11/21/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Among fossil primates, the Eocene adapiforms have been suggested as the closest relatives of living anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans). Central to this argument is the form of the second pedal digit. Extant strepsirrhines and tarsiers possess a grooming claw on this digit, while most anthropoids have a nail. While controversial, the possible presence of a nail in certain European adapiforms has been considered evidence for anthropoid affinities. Skeletons preserved well enough to test this idea have been lacking for North American adapiforms. Here, we document and quantitatively analyze, for the first time, a dentally associated skeleton of Notharctus tenebrosus from the early Eocene of Wyoming that preserves the complete bones of digit II in semi-articulation. Utilizing twelve shape variables, we compare the distal phalanges of Notharctus tenebrosus to those of extant primates that bear nails (n = 21), tegulae (n = 4), and grooming claws (n = 10), and those of non-primates that bear claws (n = 7). Quantitative analyses demonstrate that Notharctus tenebrosus possessed a grooming claw with a surprisingly well-developed apical tuft on its second pedal digit. The presence of a wide apical tuft on the pedal digit II of Notharctus tenebrosus may reflect intermediate morphology between a typical grooming claw and a nail, which is consistent with the recent hypothesis that loss of a grooming claw occurred in a clade containing adapiforms (e.g. Darwinius masillae) and anthropoids. However, a cladistic analysis including newly documented morphologies and thorough representation of characters acknowledged to have states constituting strepsirrhine, haplorhine, and anthropoid synapomorphies groups Notharctus tenebrosus and Darwinius masillae with extant strepsirrhines rather than haplorhines suggesting that the form of pedal digit II reflects substantial homoplasy during the course of early primate evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Doug M. Boyer
- Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
| | - Jonathan I. Bloch
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
| | - Christopher C. Gilbert
- Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Joseph Groenke
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America
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Boyer DM, Seiffert ER, Simons EL. Astragalar morphology of Afradapis, a large adapiform primate from the earliest late Eocene of Egypt. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2011; 143:383-402. [PMID: 20949610 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The ∼37 million-year-old Birket Qarun Locality 2 (BQ-2), in the Birket Qarun Formation of Egypt's Fayum Depression, yields evidence for a diverse primate fauna, including the earliest known lorisiforms, parapithecoid anthropoids, and Afradapis longicristatus, a large folivorous adapiform. Phylogenetic analysis has placed Afradapis as a stem strepsirrhine within a clade of caenopithecine adapiforms, contradicting the recently popularized alternative hypothesis aligning adapiforms with haplorhines or anthropoids. We describe an astragalus from BQ-2 (DPC 21445C), attributable to Afradapis on the basis of size and relative abundance. The astragalus is remarkably similar to those of extant lorises, having a low body, no posterior shelf, a broad head and neck. It is like extant strepsirrhines more generally, in having a fibular facet that slopes gently away from the lateral tibial facet, and in having a groove for the tendon of flexor fibularis that is lateral to the tibial facet. Comparisons to a sample of euarchontan astragali show the new fossil to be most similar to those of adapines and lorisids. The astragali of other adapiforms are most similar to those of lemurs, but distinctly different from those of all anthropoids. Our measurements show that in extant strepsirrhines and adapiforms the fibular facet slopes away from the lateral tibial facet at a gradual angle (112-126°), in contrast to the anthropoid fibular facet, which forms a sharper angle (87-101°). Phylogenetic analyses incorporating new information from the astragalus continue to support strepsirrhine affinities for adapiforms under varying models of character evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doug M Boyer
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA.
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Williams BA, Kay RF, Christopher Kirk E, Ross CF. Darwinius masillae is a strepsirrhine—a reply to Franzen et al. (2009). J Hum Evol 2010; 59:567-73; discussion 574-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2009] [Revised: 10/21/2009] [Accepted: 11/02/2009] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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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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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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Seiffert ER, Perry JMG, Simons EL, Boyer DM. Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. Nature 2009; 461:1118-21. [DOI: 10.1038/nature08429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2009] [Accepted: 08/18/2009] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Fabre PH, Rodrigues A, Douzery EJP. Patterns of macroevolution among Primates inferred from a supermatrix of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2009; 53:808-25. [PMID: 19682589 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2009.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 176] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2008] [Revised: 07/08/2009] [Accepted: 08/03/2009] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Here, we present a new primate phylogeny inferred from molecular supermatrix analyses of size 42 kb containing 70% of missing data, and representing 75% of primate species diversity. The supermatrix was analysed using a gene-partitioned maximum likelihood approach to obtain an exhaustive molecular phylogenetic framework. All clades recovered from recent molecular works were upheld in our analyses demonstrating that the presence of missing data did not bias our supermatrix inference. The resulting phylogenetic tree was subsequently dated with a molecular dating method to provide a timescale for speciation events. Results obtained from our relaxed molecular clock analyses concurred with previous works based on the same fossil constraints. The resulting dated tree allowed to infer of macroevolutionary processes among the primates. Shifts in diversification rate and speciation rates were determined using the SymmeTREE method and a birthdeath process. No significant asymmetry was detected for the primate clade, but significant shifts in diversification rate were identified for seven clades: Anthropoidea, Lemuriformes, Lemuridae, Galagidae, Callithrix genus, the Cercopithecinae and Asian Macaca. Comparisons with previous primate supertree results reveal that (i) there was a diversification event at the root of the Lemuriformes, (ii) a higher diversification rate is detected for Cercopithecidae and Anthropoidea and (iii) a shift in diversification is always recovered for Macaca genus. Macroevolutionary inferences and primate divergence dates show that major primate diversification events occurred after the Paleogene, suggesting the extinction of ancient primate lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- P-H Fabre
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (ISEM, UMR 5554 CNRS), Université Montpellier II, Place E. Bataillon, CC 064, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
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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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Franzen JL, Gingerich PD, Habersetzer J, Hurum JH, von Koenigswald W, Smith BH. Complete primate skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: morphology and paleobiology. PLoS One 2009; 4:e5723. [PMID: 19492084 PMCID: PMC2683573 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 156] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2009] [Accepted: 05/12/2009] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The best European locality for complete Eocene mammal skeletons is Grube Messel, near Darmstadt, Germany. Although the site was surrounded by a para-tropical rain forest in the Eocene, primates are remarkably rare there, and only eight fragmentary specimens were known until now. Messel has now yielded a full primate skeleton. The specimen has an unusual history: it was privately collected and sold in two parts, with only the lesser part previously known. The second part, which has just come to light, shows the skeleton to be the most complete primate known in the fossil record. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We describe the morphology and investigate the paleobiology of the skeleton. The specimen is described as Darwinius masillae n.gen. n.sp. belonging to the Cercamoniinae. Because the skeleton is lightly crushed and bones cannot be handled individually, imaging studies are of particular importance. Skull radiography shows a host of teeth developing within the juvenile face. Investigation of growth and proportion suggest that the individual was a weaned and independent-feeding female that died in her first year of life, and might have attained a body weight of 650-900 g had she lived to adulthood. She was an agile, nail-bearing, generalized arboreal quadruped living above the floor of the Messel rain forest. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Darwinius masillae represents the most complete fossil primate ever found, including both skeleton, soft body outline and contents of the digestive tract. Study of all these features allows a fairly complete reconstruction of life history, locomotion, and diet. Any future study of Eocene-Oligocene primates should benefit from information preserved in the Darwinius holotype. Of particular importance to phylogenetic studies, the absence of a toilet claw and a toothcomb demonstrates that Darwinius masillae is not simply a fossil lemur, but part of a larger group of primates, Adapoidea, representative of the early haplorhine diversification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jens L. Franzen
- Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Germany
- Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Philip D. Gingerich
- Museum of Paleontology and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | | | - Jørn H. Hurum
- Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Wighart von Koenigswald
- Steinmann-Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - B. Holly Smith
- Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
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Early Eocene primates from Gujarat, India. J Hum Evol 2009; 56:366-404. [PMID: 19303624 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2008] [Revised: 01/08/2009] [Accepted: 01/08/2009] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The oldest euprimates known from India come from the Early Eocene Cambay Formation at Vastan Mine in Gujarat. An Ypresian (early Cuisian) age of approximately 53Ma (based on foraminifera) indicates that these primates were roughly contemporary with, or perhaps predated, the India-Asia collision. Here we present new euprimate fossils from Vastan Mine, including teeth, jaws, and referred postcrania of the adapoids Marcgodinotius indicus and Asiadapis cambayensis. They are placed in the new subfamily Asiadapinae (family Notharctidae), which is most similar to primitive European Cercamoniinae such as Donrussellia and Protoadapis. Asiadapines were small primates in the size range of extant smaller bushbabies. Despite their generally very plesiomorphic morphology, asiadapines also share a few derived dental traits with sivaladapids, suggesting a possible relationship to these endemic Asian adapoids. In addition to the adapoids, a new species of the omomyid Vastanomys is described. Euprimate postcrania described include humeri, radii, femora, calcanei, and tali, most of which show typical notharctid features and are probably attributable to asiadapines. Anatomical features of the limb elements indicate that they represent active arboreal quadrupedal primates. At least one calcaneus is proximally shorter and distally longer than the others, resembling eosimiids in this regard, a relationship that, if confirmed, would also suggest an Asian or southeast Asian faunal connection. Isolated teeth from Vastan Mine recently attributed to a new eosimiid, Anthrasimias gujaratensis, appear to provide that confirmation. However, their attribution to Eosimiidae is equivocal. They are similar to teeth here tentatively referred to Marcgodinotius, hence A. gujaratensis may be a junior synonym of M. indicus. Corroboration of eosimiids at Vastan requires more compelling evidence. Although definitive conclusions are premature, available evidence suggests that the Vastan adapoids, at least, were derived from western European stock that reached India near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary.
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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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Bajpai S, Kay RF, Williams BA, Das DP, Kapur VV, Tiwari BN. The oldest Asian record of Anthropoidea. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105:11093-8. [PMID: 18685095 PMCID: PMC2516236 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804159105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2008] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Undisputed anthropoids appear in the fossil record of Africa and Asia by the middle Eocene, about 45 Ma. Here, we report the discovery of an early Eocene eosimiid anthropoid primate from India, named Anthrasimias, that extends the Asian fossil record of anthropoids by 9-10 million years. A phylogenetic analysis of 75 taxa and 343 characters of the skull, postcranium, and dentition of Anthrasimias and living and fossil primates indicates the basal placement of Anthrasimias among eosimiids, confirms the anthropoid status of Eosimiidae, and suggests that crown haplorhines (tarsiers and monkeys) are the sister clade of Omomyoidea of the Eocene, not nested within an omomyoid clade. Co-occurence of Anthropoidea, Omomyoidea, and Adapoidea makes it evident that peninsular India was an important center for the diversification of primates of modern aspect (euprimates) in the early Eocene. Adaptive reconstructions indicate that early anthropoids were mouse-lemur-sized ( approximately 75 grams) and consumed a mixed diet of fruit and insects. Eosimiids bear little adaptive resemblance to later Eocene-early Oligocene African Anthropoidea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunil Bajpai
- *Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247 667, India
| | - Richard F. Kay
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | - Blythe A. Williams
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
| | - Debasis P. Das
- *Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247 667, India
| | | | - B. N. Tiwari
- Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, 248001, India
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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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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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Seiffert ER. Evolution and Extinction of Afro-Arabian Primates Near the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2007; 78:314-27. [PMID: 17855785 DOI: 10.1159/000105147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Revised age estimates for the primate-bearing localities of the Jebel Qatrani Formation (Fayum area, northern Egypt) have provided a new perspective on primate response to early Oligocene climate change in North Africa. Environmental changes associated with early Oligocene cooling might have driven the local extinction of at least 4 strepsirrhine primate clades (adapids, djebelemurines, plesiopithecids and galagids). Contrary to previous suggestions, oligopithecid (and possibly proteopithecid) anthropoids persisted beyond the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (EOB) in the Fayum area, and the former group evidently continued to diversify through the early Oligocene at lower latitudes. Propliopithecids and parapithecine parapithecids first appear in the Jebel Qatrani Formation millions of years after the EOB, so their derived dental and gnathic features can no longer be interpreted as sudden adaptive morphological responses to earliest Oligocene climatic events. Evidence for latitudinal contraction of Afro-Arabian primate distribution through the early Oligocene suggests that the profound late Oligocene restructuring of Afro-Arabian primate communities is most likely to have occurred in equatorial and low-latitude tropical Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik R Seiffert
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
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Marivaux L, Bocat L, Chaimanee Y, Jaeger JJ, Marandat B, Srisuk P, Tafforeau P, Yamee C, Welcomme JL. Cynocephalid dermopterans from the Palaeogene of South Asia (Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan): systematic, evolutionary and palaeobiogeographic implications. ZOOL SCR 2006. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00235.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Protoanthropoidea (Primates, Simiiformes): A New Primate Higher Taxon and a Solution to the Rooneyia Problem. J MAMM EVOL 2006. [DOI: 10.1007/s10914-006-9009-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Abstract
Primates living today are believed to share a common ancestor that originated in either Africa or Asia. Fossil examples of such anthropoid ancestors have been found in both continents, so pushing back the origins to a single location has been controversial. In their Perspective, Jaeger and Marivaux discuss results reported in the same issue by Seiffert et al. that may put part of the controversy to rest. Seiffert et al. describe the earliest and most complete African anthropoid fossils from the Fayum desert region of Egypt. Cranial and dental fossils of two different small species were found, and their character, especially the features of the fossil teeth, suggests an ancient evolutionary history in Africa. At the same time, the phylogenetic analysis of Seiffert et al. is consistent with the view that African anthropoids immigrated from Asia at a very early date, probably before the late Paleocene (60 million years ago), possibly followed by later waves of immigration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Jacques Jaeger
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université Montpellier II, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
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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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