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Del Rio C, Wang TX, Liu J, Liang SQ, Spicer RA, Wu FX, Zhou ZK, Su T. Asclepiadospermum gen. nov., the earliest fossil record of Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae) from the early Eocene of central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and its biogeographic implications. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2020; 107:126-138. [PMID: 31944266 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Apocynaceae is common in the fossil record, especially as seed remains from the Neogene of Europe and North America, but rare in Asia. Intrafamilial assignment is difficult due to the lack of diagnostic characters, and new fossil and modern data are needed to understand the paleobiogeography of this group. METHODS We studied three Apocynaceae seed impressions from the Lower Eocene Niubao Formation, Jianglang village, Bangor County, central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Morphological data from living and fossil species were phylogenetically mapped to enable systematic assignment. RESULTS We describe a new genus, Asclepiadospermum gen. nov., and two new species, A. marginatum sp. nov. and A. ellipticum sp. nov. These species are characterized by an elliptical seed, a margin surrounding the central part of the seed, and polygonal, irregular, and small epidermal cells, and differ mainly in terms of the size of the margin and the shape of the apex. All these characters indicate that this new genus belongs to the subfamily Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae). CONCLUSIONS These fossils represent the earliest fossil seed records of Asclepiadoideae. Asclepiadospermum indicates a humid tropical to subtropical flora during the early Eocene in central Tibet. Moreover, our discoveries indicate a close floristic connection between Eurasia and Africa during the early Eocene, which expands our knowledge of the floristic linkage between Tibet and other regions at that time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cédric Del Rio
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- Center of Conservation Biology / Economic Botany / Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Teng-Xiang Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jia Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- Center of Conservation Biology / Economic Botany / Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Shui-Qing Liang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- Public Technology Service Center, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
| | - Robert A Spicer
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
| | - Fei-Xiang Wu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthro- pology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Zhe-Kun Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- Center of Conservation Biology / Economic Botany / Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Tao Su
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China
- Center of Conservation Biology / Economic Botany / Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
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Benoit J, Legendre LJ, Tabuce R, Obada T, Mararescul V, Manger P. Brain evolution in Proboscidea (Mammalia, Afrotheria) across the Cenozoic. Sci Rep 2019; 9:9323. [PMID: 31249366 PMCID: PMC6597534 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45888-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Accepted: 06/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
As the largest and among the most behaviourally complex extant terrestrial mammals, proboscideans (elephants and their extinct relatives) are iconic representatives of the modern megafauna. The timing of the evolution of large brain size and above average encephalization quotient remains poorly understood due to the paucity of described endocranial casts. Here we created the most complete dataset on proboscidean endocranial capacity and analysed it using phylogenetic comparative methods and ancestral character states reconstruction using maximum likelihood. Our analyses support that, in general, brain size and body mass co-evolved in proboscideans across the Cenozoic; however, this pattern appears disrupted by two instances of specific increases in relative brain size in the late Oligocene and early Miocene. These increases in encephalization quotients seem to correspond to intervals of important climatic, environmental and faunal changes in Africa that may have positively selected for larger brain size or body mass.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julien Benoit
- Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI), University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
| | - Lucas J Legendre
- Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2275 Speedway Stop C9000, Austin, TX, United States
| | - Rodolphe Tabuce
- Institut des Sciences de L'Evolution de Montpellier, Université Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Batillon, F-34095 Montpellier, cedex 05, Montpellier, France
| | - Theodor Obada
- Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Institute of Zoology, Chişinău, Moldova
| | | | - Paul Manger
- School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 7 York Road, Parktown, 2193, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Capobianco A, Friedman M. Vicariance and dispersal in southern hemisphere freshwater fish clades: a palaeontological perspective. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2018; 94:662-699. [DOI: 10.1111/brv.12473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2018] [Revised: 09/17/2018] [Accepted: 09/19/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Alessio Capobianco
- Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; University of Michigan; 1105 N. University Ave, Ann Arbor MI 48109-1079 U.S.A
| | - Matt Friedman
- Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; University of Michigan; 1105 N. University Ave, Ann Arbor MI 48109-1079 U.S.A
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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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Abstract
The peculiar mammalian fauna that inhabited Afro-Arabia during the Paleogene first came to the attention of the scientific community in the early part of the twentieth century, when Andrews1 and Schlosser2 published their landmark descriptions of fossil mammals from the Fayum Depression in northern Egypt. Their studies revealed a highly endemic assemblage of land mammals that included the first known Paleogene records of hyraxes, proboscideans, and anthropoid primates, but which lacked ancestors of many iconic mammalian lineages that are found in Africa today, such as rhinos, zebras, bovids, giraffes, and cats. Over the course of the last century, the Afro-Arabian Paleogene has yielded fossil remains of several other endemic mammalian lineages,3 as well as a diversity of prosimian primates,4 but we are only just beginning to understand how the continent's faunal composition came to be, through ancient processes such as the movement of tectonic plates, changes in climate and sea level, and early phylogenetic splits among the major groups of placental mammals. These processes, in turn, made possible chance dispersal events that were critical in determining the competitive landscape--and, indeed, the survival--of our earliest anthropoid ancestors. Newly discovered fossils indicate that the persistence and later diversification of Anthropoidea was not an inevitable result of the clade's competitive isolation or adaptive superiority, as has often been assumed, but rather was as much due to the combined influences of serendipitous geographic conditions, global cooling, and competition with a group of distantly related extinct strepsirrhines with anthropoid-like adaptations known as adapiforms. Many of the important details of this story would not be known, and could never have been predicted, without the fossil evidence that has recently been unearthed by field paleontologists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik R Seiffert
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, USA.
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A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa. Naturwissenschaften 2011; 98:815-23. [PMID: 21874523 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0829-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2011] [Revised: 07/20/2011] [Accepted: 07/22/2011] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
The bird fossil record is globally scarce in Africa. The early Tertiary evolution of terrestrial birds is virtually unknown in that continent. Here, we report on a femur of a large terrestrial new genus discovered from the early or early middle Eocene (between ∼52 and 46 Ma) of south-western Algeria. This femur shows all the morphological features of the Phororhacoidea, the so-called Terror Birds. Most of the phororhacoids were indeed large, or even gigantic, flightless predators or scavengers with no close modern analogs. It is likely that this extinct group originated in South America, where they are known from the late Paleocene to the late Pleistocene (∼59 to 0.01 Ma). The presence of a phororhacoid bird in Africa cannot be explained by a vicariant mechanism because these birds first appeared in South America well after the onset of the mid-Cretaceous Gondwana break up (∼100 million years old). Here, we propose two hypotheses to account for this occurrence, either an early dispersal of small members of this group, which were still able of a limited flight, or a transoceanic migration of flightless birds from South America to Africa during the Paleocene or earliest Eocene. Paleogeographic reconstructions of the South Atlantic Ocean suggest the existence of several islands of considerable size between South America and Africa during the early Tertiary, which could have helped a transatlantic dispersal of phororhacoids.
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MARTIN JEREMYE, LAUPRASERT KOMSORN. A new primitive alligatorine from the Eocene of Thailand: relevance of Asiatic members to the radiation of the group. Zool J Linn Soc 2010. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00582.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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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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Tabuce R, Marivaux L, Lebrun R, Adaci M, Bensalah M, Fabre PH, Fara E, Gomes Rodrigues H, Hautier L, Jaeger JJ, Lazzari V, Mebrouk F, Peigné S, Sudre J, Tafforeau P, Valentin X, Mahboubi M. Anthropoid versus strepsirhine status of the African Eocene primates Algeripithecus and Azibius: craniodental evidence. Proc Biol Sci 2009; 276:4087-94. [PMID: 19740889 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent fossil discoveries have demonstrated that Africa and Asia were epicentres for the origin and/or early diversification of the major living primate lineages, including both anthropoids (monkeys, apes and humans) and crown strepsirhine primates (lemurs, lorises and galagos). Competing hypotheses favouring either an African or Asian origin for anthropoids rank among the most hotly contested issues in paleoprimatology. The Afrocentric model for anthropoid origins rests heavily on the >45 Myr old fossil Algeripithecus minutus from Algeria, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the oldest known anthropoids. However, the phylogenetic position of Algeripithecus with respect to other primates has been tenuous because of the highly fragmentary fossils that have documented this primate until now. Recently recovered and more nearly complete fossils of Algeripithecus and contemporaneous relatives reveal that they are not anthropoids. New data support the idea that Algeripithecus and its sister genus Azibius are the earliest offshoots of an Afro-Arabian strepsirhine clade that embraces extant toothcombed primates and their fossil relatives. Azibius exhibits anatomical evidence for nocturnality. Algeripithecus has a long, thin and forwardly inclined lower canine alveolus, a feature that is entirely compatible with the long and procumbent lower canine included in the toothcomb of crown strepsirhines. These results strengthen an ancient African origin for crown strepsirhines and, in turn, strongly challenge the role of Africa as the ancestral homeland for anthropoids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodolphe Tabuce
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution UMR5554, cc064, Université Montpellier II, place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 05, France.
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Tabuce R, Marivaux L, Adaci M, Bensalah M, Hartenberger JL, Mahboubi M, Mebrouk F, Tafforeau P, Jaeger JJ. Early Tertiary mammals from North Africa reinforce the molecular Afrotheria clade. Proc Biol Sci 2007; 274:1159-66. [PMID: 17329227 PMCID: PMC2189562 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The phylogenetic pattern and timing of the radiation of mammals, especially the geographical origins of major crown clades, are areas of controversy among molecular biologists, morphologists and palaeontologists. Molecular phylogeneticists have identified an Afrotheria clade, which includes several taxa as different as tenrecs (Tenrecidae), golden moles (Chrysochloridae), elephant-shrews (Macroscelididae), aardvarks (Tubulidentata) and paenungulates (elephants, sea cows and hyracoids). Molecular data also suggest a Cretaceous African origin for Afrotheria within Placentalia followed by a long period of endemic evolution on the Afro-Arabian continent after the mid-Cretaceous Gondwanan breakup (approx. 105-25 Myr ago). However, there was no morphological support for such a natural grouping so far. Here, we report new dental and postcranial evidence of Eocene stem hyrax and macroscelidid from North Africa that, for the first time, provides a congruent phylogenetic view with the molecular Afrotheria clade. These new fossils imply, however, substantial changes regarding the historical biogeography of afrotheres. Their long period of isolation in Africa, as assumed by molecular inferences, is now to be reconsidered inasmuch as Eocene paenungulates and elephant-shrews are here found to be related to some Early Tertiary Euramerican 'hyopsodontid condylarths' (archaic hoofed mammals). As a result, stem members of afrotherian clades are not strictly African but also include some Early Paleogene Holarctic mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodolphe Tabuce
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, cc064, Université Montpellier II, place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
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Marivaux L, Antoine PO, Baqri SRH, Benammi M, Chaimanee Y, Crochet JY, de Franceschi D, Iqbal N, Jaeger JJ, Métais G, Roohi G, Welcomme JL. Anthropoid primates from the Oligocene of Pakistan (Bugti Hills): data on early anthropoid evolution and biogeography. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005; 102:8436-41. [PMID: 15937103 PMCID: PMC1150860 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0503469102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Asian tarsiid and sivaladapid primates maintained relictual distributions in southern Asia long after the extirpation of their close Holarctic relatives near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. We report here the discovery of amphipithecid and eosimiid primates from Oligocene coastal deposits in Pakistan that demonstrate that stem anthropoids also survived in southern Asia beyond the climatic deterioration that characterized the Eocene-Oligocene transition. These fossils provide data on temporal and paleobiogeographic aspects of early anthropoid evolution and significantly expand the record of stem anthropoid evolution in the Paleogene of South Asia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Marivaux
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Unité Mixte de Recherche-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 5554, c.c. 064, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France.
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