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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:e22022. [PMID: 38270328 DOI: 10.1002/evan.22022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [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, 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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First record of a parapithecid primate from the Oligocene of Kenya. J Hum Evol 2011; 61:327-31. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2010] [Revised: 04/13/2011] [Accepted: 04/13/2011] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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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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Seiffert ER. Revised age estimates for the later Paleogene mammal faunas of Egypt and Oman. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2006; 103:5000-5. [PMID: 16549773 PMCID: PMC1458784 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0600689103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Jebel Qatrani Formation of northern Egypt has produced Afro-Arabia's primary record of Paleogene mammalian evolution, including the world's most complete remains of early anthropoid primates. Recent studies of Fayum mammals have assumed that the Jebel Qatrani Formation contains a significant Eocene component ( approximately 150 of 340 m), and that most taxa from that succession are between 35.4 and 33.3 million years old (Ma), i.e., latest Eocene to earliest Oligocene in age. Reanalysis of the chronological evidence shared by later Paleogene strata exposed in Egypt and Oman (Taqah and Thaytiniti areas, Dhofar Province) reveals that this hypothesis is no longer tenable. Revised correlation of the Fayum and Dhofar magnetostratigraphies indicates that (i) only the lowest 48 m of the Jebel Qatrani Formation are likely to be Eocene in age; (ii) the youngest Fayum anthropoids, including well known species such as Aegyptopithecus zeuxis and Apidium phiomense, are probably between 30.2 and 29.5 Ma, approximately 3-4 Ma younger than previously thought; (iii) oligopithecid anthropoids did not go extinct at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary but rather persisted for at least another 2.5 Ma; (iv) propliopithecid anthropoids first appear in the Fayum area at approximately 31.5 Ma, long after the Eocene-Oligocene boundary; and (v) the youngest Fayum mammals may be only approximately 1 Ma older than the 28- to 27-Ma mammals from Chilga, Ethiopia, and not 4-5 Ma older, as previously thought. Whatever gap exists in the Oligocene record of Afro-Arabian mammal evolution is now limited primarily to a poorly sampled 27- to 23-Ma window in the latest Oligocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik R Seiffert
- Department of Earth Sciences and Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, United Kingdom.
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Simons EL, Rasmussen T. A whole new world of ancestors: Eocene anthropoideans from Africa. Evol Anthropol 2005. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.1360030407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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HARRISON TERRY. The zoogeographic and phylogenetic relationships of early catarrhine primates in Asia. ANTHROPOL SCI 2005. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.04s006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- TERRY HARRISON
- Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University
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Seiffert ER, Simons EL. Astragalar morphology of late Eocene anthropoids from the Fayum Depression (Egypt) and the origin of catarrhine primates. J Hum Evol 2001; 41:577-606. [PMID: 11782110 DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2001.0508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The phylogenetic relationships of the late Eocene anthropoids Catopithecus browni and Proteopithecus sylviae are currently a matter of debate, with opinion divided as to whether these taxa are stem or crown anthropoids. The phylogenetic position of Catopithecus is of particular interest, for, unlike the highly generalized genus Proteopithecus, this taxon shares apomorphic dental and postcranial features with more derived undoubted catarrhines that appear in the same region 1-2 Ma later. If these apomorphies are homologous and Catopithecus is a stem catarrhine, the unique combination of plesiomorphic and apomorphic features preserved in this anthropoid would have important implications for our understanding of the crown anthropoid morphotype and the pattern of morphological character transformations that occurred during the early phases of stem catarrhine evolution.Well-preserved astragali referrable to Proteopithecus, Catopithecus, and the undoubted early Oligocene stem catarrhine Aegyptopithecus have provided additional morphological evidence that allows us to further evaluate competing hypotheses of interrelationships among Eocene-Oligocene Afro-Arabian anthropoids. Qualitative observations and multivariate morphometric analyses reveal that the astragalar morphology of Proteopithecus is very similar to that of early Oligocene parapithecids and living and extinct small-bodied platyrrhines, and strengthens the hypothesis that the morphological pattern shared by these taxa is primitive within crown Anthropoidea. In contrast, Catopithecus departs markedly from the predicted crown anthropoid astragalar morphotype and shares a number of apomorphic features (e.g., deep cotylar fossa, laterally projecting fibular facet, trochlear asymmetry, mediolaterally wide astragalar head) with Aegyptopithecus and Miocene-Recent catarrhines. The evidence from the astragalus complements other independent data from the dentition, humerus and femur of Catopithecus that support this taxon's stem catarrhine status, and we continue to maintain that oligopithecines are stem catarrhines that constitute the sister group of a clade containing propliopithecines and Miocene-Recent catarrhines.
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Affiliation(s)
- E R Seiffert
- Department of Biological Anthropology & Anatomy, Duke University, 3705 Erwin Road, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA.
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Kirk EC, Simons EL. Diets of fossil primates from the Fayum Depression of Egypt: a quantitative analysis of molar shearing. J Hum Evol 2001; 40:203-29. [PMID: 11180986 DOI: 10.1006/jhev.2000.0450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Over the last 90 years, Eocene and Oligocene aged sediments in the Fayum Depression of Egypt have yielded at least 17 genera of fossil primates. However, of this diverse sample the diets of only four early Oligocene anthropoid genera have been previously studied using quantitative methods. Here we present dietary assessments for 11 additional Fayum primate genera based on the analysis of body mass and molar shearing crest development. These studies reveal that all late Eocene Fayum anthropoids were probably frugivorous despite marked subfamilial differences in dental morphology. By contrast, late Eocene Fayum prosimians demonstrated remarkable dietary diversity, including specialized insectivory (Anchomomys), generalized frugivory (Plesiopithecus), frugivory+insectivory (Wadilemur), and strict folivory (Aframonius). This evidence that sympatric prosimians and early anthropoids jointly occupied frugivorous niches during the late Eocene reinforces the hypothesis that changes in diet did not form the primary ecological impetus for the origin of the Anthropoidea. Early Oligocene Fayum localities differ from late Eocene Fayum localities in lacking large-bodied frugivorous and folivorous prosimians, and may document the first appearance of primate communities with trophic structures like those of extant primate communities in continental Africa. A similar change in primate community structure during the Eocene-Oligocene transition is not evident in the Asian fossil record. Putative large anthropoids from the Eocene of Asia, such as Amphipithecus mogaungensis, Pondaungia cotteri, and Siamopithecus eocaenus, share with early Oligocene Fayum anthropoids derived features of molar anatomy related to an emphasis on crushing and grinding during mastication. However, these dental specializations are not seen in late Eocene Fayum anthropoids that are broadly ancestral to the later-occurring anthropoids of the Fayum's upper sequence. This lack of resemblance to undisputed Eocene African anthropoids suggests that the "progressive" anthropoid-like dental features of some large-bodied Eocene Asian primates may be the result of dietary convergence rather than close phyletic affinity with the Anthropoidea.
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Affiliation(s)
- E C Kirk
- Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
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Chaimanee Y, Suteethorn V, Jaeger JJ, Ducrocq S. A new Late Eocene anthropoid primate from Thailand. Nature 1997; 385:429-31. [PMID: 9009188 DOI: 10.1038/385429a0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The fossil record of anthropoid primates from the Middle Eocene of South Asia is so far restricted to two genera (Pondaungia cotteri Pilgrim, 1937 and Amphipithecus mogaungensis Colbert, 1937 from the Eocene Pondaung deposits of Burma) whose anthropoid status and phylogenetic position have long been under debate because they represent the oldest highly derived fossil primates of anthropoid grade. Moreover, several new African taxa, some of which are even older, have been recently included in the suborder Anthropoidea, suggesting an African origin for this group. Conversely, new fossil primates recently discovered in China (Eosimias) have been related to the most primitive representatives of Anthropoidea, alternatively suggesting an Asian origin and a probable Asian radiation centre. We report here the discovery of a new anthropoid from the Thai Late Eocene locality of Krabi, which displays several additional anthropoid characters with regard to those of the Eocene Burmese genera. This species, which is about the size of the Fayum Aegyptopithecus, can be related to the Burmese forms, and it further provides strong additional evidence for a southeast Asian evolutionary centre for anthropoids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y Chaimanee
- Department of Mineral Resources, Geological Survey Division, Paleontological Section, Bangkok, Thailand
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Simons EL, Rasmussen DT. Skull of Catopithecus browni, an early tertiary catarrhine. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1996; 100:261-92. [PMID: 8771315 DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199606)100:2<261::aid-ajpa7>3.0.co;2-#] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Fossil crania from quarry L-41, Fayum, Egypt, representing Catopithecus browni, a primate similar in size to callitrichids but with a catarrhine dental formula, provide the geologically earliest record of an anthropoidean skull. Catopithecus had postorbital closure developed to the stage seen in extant anthropoideans, with direct contact between zygomatic plate and maxillary tuber, isolating an anterior orbital fissure from the inferior orbital fissure. The auditory region also resembles that of later anthropoideans: The posterior carotid foramen is placed adjacent to the jugular fossa; a large promontory canal crosses the promontorium; and the annular ectotympanic is fused ventrally to the bulla. The incisors and canines show an assemblage of features found only among modern anthropoideans and adapoids. The face is characterized by a relatively deep maxilla, broad ascending wing of the premaxilla, and long nasal bones, yielding a moderate muzzle similar to that of Aegyptopithecus. The small braincase bears an anteriorly broad frontal trigon and a posteriorly developed sagittal crest. The mandibular symphysis is unfused even in mature adults. The encephalization quotient (EQ) probably falls within the range of Eocene prosimians, much lower than the EQs of Neogene anthropoideans.
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Affiliation(s)
- E L Simons
- Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA
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Simons E. Egyptian oligocene primates: A review. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1995. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330380610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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