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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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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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