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Urciuoli A, Alba DM. Systematics of Miocene apes: State of the art of a neverending controversy. J Hum Evol 2023; 175:103309. [PMID: 36716680 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Hominoids diverged from cercopithecoids during the Oligocene in Afro-Arabia, initially radiating in that continent and subsequently dispersing into Eurasia. From the Late Miocene onward, the geographic range of hominoids progressively shrank, except for hominins, which dispersed out of Africa during the Pleistocene. Although the overall picture of hominoid evolution is clear based on available fossil evidence, many uncertainties persist regarding the phylogeny and paleobiogeography of Miocene apes (nonhominin hominoids), owing to their sparse record, pervasive homoplasy, and the decimated current diversity of this group. We review Miocene ape systematics and evolution by focusing on the most parsimonious cladograms published during the last decade. First, we provide a historical account of the progress made in Miocene ape phylogeny and paleobiogeography, report an updated classification of Miocene apes, and provide a list of Miocene ape species-locality occurrences together with an analysis of their paleobiodiversity dynamics. Second, we discuss various critical issues of Miocene ape phylogeny and paleobiogeography (hylobatid and crown hominid origins, plus the relationships of Oreopithecus) in the light of the highly divergent results obtained from cladistic analyses of craniodental and postcranial characters separately. We conclude that cladistic efforts to disentangle Miocene ape phylogeny are potentially biased by a long-branch attraction problem caused by the numerous postcranial similarities shared between hylobatids and hominids-despite the increasingly held view that they are likely homoplastic to a large extent, as illustrated by Sivapithecus and Pierolapithecus-and further aggravated by abundant missing data owing to incomplete preservation. Finally, we argue that-besides the recovery of additional fossils, the retrieval of paleoproteomic data, and a better integration between cladistics and geometric morphometrics-Miocene ape phylogenetics should take advantage of total-evidence (tip-dating) Bayesian methods of phylogenetic inference combining morphologic, molecular, and chronostratigraphic data. This would hopefully help ascertain whether hylobatid divergence was more basal than currently supported.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Urciuoli
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Division of Palaeoanthropology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - David M Alba
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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Schrago CG. The effective population sizes of the anthropoid ancestors of the human-chimpanzee lineage provide insights on the historical biogeography of the great apes. Mol Biol Evol 2013; 31:37-47. [PMID: 24124206 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mst191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The recent development of methods that apply coalescent theory to phylogenetic problems has enabled the study of the population-level phenomena that drove the diversification of anthropoid primates. Effective population size, Ne, is one of the main parameters that constitute the theoretical underpinning of these new analytical approaches. For this reason, the ancestral N(e) of selected primate lineages has been thoroughly investigated. However, for some of these lineages, the estimates of ancestral N(e) reported in several studies present significant variation. This is the case for the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. Moreover, several ancestral anthropoid lineages have been ignored in the studies conducted so far. Because N(e) is fundamental to understand historic species demography, it is a crucial component of a complete description of the historical scenario of primate evolution. It also provides information that is helpful for differentiating between competing biogeographical hypotheses. In this study, the effective population sizes of the anthropoid ancestors of the human-chimp lineage are inferred using data sets of coding and noncoding sequences. A general pattern of a serial decline of population sizes is found between the ancestral lineage of Anthropoidea and that of Homo and Pan. When the theoretical distribution of gene trees was derived from the parametric estimates obtained, it closely corresponded to the empirical frequency of inferred gene trees along the genome. The most abrupt decrease of N(e) was found between the ancestors of all great apes and those of the African great apes alone. This suggests the occurrence of a genetic bottleneck during the evolution of Homininae, which corroborates the origin of African apes from a Eurasian ancestor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos G Schrago
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Springer MS, Meredith RW, Gatesy J, Emerling CA, Park J, Rabosky DL, Stadler T, Steiner C, Ryder OA, Janečka JE, Fisher CA, Murphy WJ. Macroevolutionary dynamics and historical biogeography of primate diversification inferred from a species supermatrix. PLoS One 2012; 7:e49521. [PMID: 23166696 PMCID: PMC3500307 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 270] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2012] [Accepted: 10/09/2012] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Phylogenetic relationships, divergence times, and patterns of biogeographic descent among primate species are both complex and contentious. Here, we generate a robust molecular phylogeny for 70 primate genera and 367 primate species based on a concatenation of 69 nuclear gene segments and ten mitochondrial gene sequences, most of which were extracted from GenBank. Relaxed clock analyses of divergence times with 14 fossil-calibrated nodes suggest that living Primates last shared a common ancestor 71-63 Ma, and that divergences within both Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini are entirely post-Cretaceous. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs played an important role in the diversification of placental mammals. Previous queries into primate historical biogeography have suggested Africa, Asia, Europe, or North America as the ancestral area of crown primates, but were based on methods that were coopted from phylogeny reconstruction. By contrast, we analyzed our molecular phylogeny with two methods that were developed explicitly for ancestral area reconstruction, and find support for the hypothesis that the most recent common ancestor of living Primates resided in Asia. Analyses of primate macroevolutionary dynamics provide support for a diversification rate increase in the late Miocene, possibly in response to elevated global mean temperatures, and are consistent with the fossil record. By contrast, diversification analyses failed to detect evidence for rate-shift changes near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary even though the fossil record provides clear evidence for a major turnover event ("Grande Coupure") at this time. Our results highlight the power and limitations of inferring diversification dynamics from molecular phylogenies, as well as the sensitivity of diversification analyses to different species concepts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark S. Springer
- Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Robert W. Meredith
- Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America
- Department of Biology and Molecular Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - John Gatesy
- Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Christopher A. Emerling
- Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America
| | - Jong Park
- Department of Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, United States of America
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Daniel L. Rabosky
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Tanja Stadler
- Institut für Integrative Biologie, Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Cynthia Steiner
- San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, San Diego, California, United States of America
| | - Oliver A. Ryder
- San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, San Diego, California, United States of America
| | - Jan E. Janečka
- Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America
| | - Colleen A. Fisher
- Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America
| | - William J. Murphy
- Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America
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Moyà-Solà S, Köhler M, Alba DM, Casanovas-Vilar I, Galindo J, Robles JM, Cabrera L, Garcés M, Almécija S, Beamud E. First partial face and upper dentition of the Middle Miocene hominoidDryopithecus fontanifrom Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia, NE Spain): Taxonomic and phylogenetic implications. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2009; 139:126-45. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 91] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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Kunimatsu Y, Ishida H, Nakatsukasa M, Nakano Y, Sawada Y, Nakayama K. Maxillae and associated gnathodental specimens of Nacholapithecus kerioi, a large-bodied hominoid from Nachola, northern Kenya. J Hum Evol 2004; 46:365-400. [PMID: 15066377 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2001] [Accepted: 12/14/2003] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The middle Miocene large-bodied hominoid from Nachola, initially attributed to Kenyapithecus, was recently transferred to a new genus and species Nacholapithecus kerioi. The hypodigm of N. kerioi consists of numerous maxillae, mandibles, and isolated teeth, as well as a number of postcranial bones. A detailed description of the previously discovered postcranial material has already been presented. This article aims to give a detailed description of maxillary specimens (including some mandibular fragments associated with them) of N. kerioi collected by the Japan-Kenya Joint Project team during the field seasons of 1982, 1984, and 1986. The maxillary specimens of N. kerioi retain a set of primitive catarrhine features, such as a relatively shallow palate, low position of the anterior zygomatic root, and the lack of enlarged premolars. Yet, compared to the Early Miocene Proconsul, N. kerioi is derived in having a moderately elongated subnasal clivus that appears to have overlapped the hard palate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yutaka Kunimatsu
- Primate Research Institute, Kyôto University, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan.
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