primate origins

8/7/2019 Primate Origins

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Chapter 8

Primate Origins


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Map Showing Location of the

Fossil Primates


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Map Showing Location of the

Fossil Primates


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Seven Epochs of the Cenozoic Paleocene (65 mya; primate-like mammals, aka

Plesiadapiformes)

Eocene (55.8 mya; first true primates, Prosimians)

Oligocene (33 mya; early Catarrhines, precursors to monkeysand apes, emerge)

Miocene (23 mya; monkeys and apes emerge, first humanlikecreatures appear)

Pliocene (5.3 mya; early humans diversify) Pleistocene (1.8 mya; early Homo develops)

Holocene (0.01 mya; the present epoch)


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Last Common Ancestor (LCA) The final evolutionary link between two

related groups.


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Question Monkeys, apes and the first humanlike

creatures appeared during the:

a) Pliocene.

b) Eocene.

c) Paleocene.

d) Miocene.


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Answer: d Monkeys, apes and the first humanlike

creatures appeared during the Miocene.


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Carpolestes

Nearly complete skeleton of Carpolestes discovered in

the Clarks Fork Basin of Wyoming. (a) Carpolestes as it

was discovered. (b) Reconstructed skeleton (c) Artists

rendering.


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Eocene Primates Fossil primates from the Eocene display

distinctive primate features.

Looking at the whole array of Eoceneprimates, it is certain that they were:

1. Primates

2. Widely distributed3. Mostly extinct by the end of the

Eocene.


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Teilhardina (a) View of the skull

ofTeilhardina from

the top. (b) An artists

reconstruction of

Teilhardina, with

areas in grayrepresenting missing

fragments.


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Teilhardina

The rapid westward dispersal of euprimates of thegenus Teilhardina.


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Early Eocene Primates:

Features Chinese fossils dating from the early Eocene

(5545 m.y.a.) have three interesting features:

Forward rotation of the eyes makes themdistinct from the lemur-loris lineage.

The cranium shows small eye sockets,

suggesting they may have been diurnal.

They were all apparently extremely small,

weighing less than 1 ounce.


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Amphipithecids The teeth of the

amphipithecids are

misleading, but themandibles betray

their phylogenetic

affinity as lower

primates.


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Convergent Evolution

An example of convergent evolution: the skull ofArchaeolemur (left) and a macaque monkey.

Note how the lemur resembles the monkey in the shape

of the jaw, teeth, and overall cranial form.


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Catopithecus Three specimens of

Catopithecus; the

earliestanthropoid genus with

a preserved skull.

These give us our first

view of earlycatarrhine cranial

anatomy including fully

enclosed orbits.


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Oligocene Primates The Oligocene (3423 m.y.a.) yielded fossil

remains of several species of early anthropoids.

By the early Oligocene, continental drift hadseparated the New World from the Old World.

It has been suggested that late in the Eocene or

very early in the Oligocene, the first anthropoids

arose in Africa and reached South America byrafting over the water separation on drifting

chunks of vegetation.


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Phyletic Relationships of Fayum Early

Anthropoids and Living Catarrhines


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Parapithecus Parapithecus belongs

to the group of

Fayum anthropoidsthat are most closely

related to the

ancestry ofNew

World monkeys.


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Aegyptopithecus Skull of

Aegyptopithecus.

This genus has beenproposed as the

ancestor of both Old

World monkeys and

hominoids.


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Homunculus Skull of Homunculus,

a middle Miocene

descendant of theearliest platyrrhine

radiation.


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Question The majority of Old World primate fossils

of the Oligocene epoch (33-24 m.y.a)

come from:

a) China.

b) the Fayum Depression in Egypt.

c) East Africa.

d) the Arabian Peninsula.


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Answer: b The majority of Old World primate fossils

of the Oligocene epoch (33-24 m.y.a)

come from the Fayum Depression inEgypt.


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Cladogram Of Extant Groups

of New World Monkeys


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Continental Relationships

During the Late Eocene The broken white line

and surrounding

shades of bluerepresent seafloor

spreading, which

caused continents to

drift apart.


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Victoriapithecus Skull of

Victoriapithecus, the

first Old Worldmonkey.


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Theropithecus Skull of brumpti, the most

bizarre fossil monkey(inset).

An artists rendering ofTheropithecus on thelandscape in the OmoBasin of Ethiopia about 3mya.


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Diversity of Early Miocene

Ape Mandibles The shapes and sizes of

these mandibles and

teeth illustrates the

adaptive diversity of apesduring this time.

They ranged in size from

that of a male orangutan

through half the size of amodern gibbon and ate

foods as varied as hard

roots and soft fruit.


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Proconsul Skull of Proconsul, the

best known of the early

Miocene dental apes. Dental Ape: an early

ape that postcranially

resembles a monkey,

but dentally ishominoid (i.e., has a Y-

5 molar configuration).


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Pliopithecus Pliopithecus, from the

middle Miocene ofEurope.

The pliopithecoids werethe first catarrhines toleave Africa.

Since this skull is of afemale, no sagittal crest

is present, though strongtemporal lines indicatethe individual enjoyed adiet of hard plant items.


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Dryopithecus Skull of Dryopithecus,

the earliest European

ape. The left side is

reconstructed as a

mirror image of the

complete right side.


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Ouranopithecus Ouranopithecus, possible

ancestor of the African

apes.

Notice that the face

shares many features

with living African great

apes, including large

browridges and a widedistance between the

eye orbits.


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Comparison of Chimpanzee,

Sivapithecus andO

rangutan

Modern chimpanzee (left), Sivapithecus (middle), andmodern orangutan (right).

Sivapithecus and the orangutan exhibit a dished face,

broad cheekbones, and projecting maxilla and incisors.


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Gigantopithecus

An artists rendering of Gigantopithecus

enjoying a meal of the tasty, but tough, tropical

fruit known as durian.


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Lufengpithecus

Skull of a Lufengpithecus juvenile from the late Mioceneof Yunnan Province, China.

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