Terry Harrison

The phylogenetic relationships of the early catarrhine primates: a review of the current evidence

This paper presents a review of the evolutionary relationships of the early catarrhine primates. The first stage of the analysis involves the reconstruction of the inferred ancestral morphotypes of the major groups of extant anthropoids. The introduction of the fossil taxa into the phylogenetic scheme represents the second and final stage of the analysis. The results of this cladistic analysis suggests that: (1) the parapithecids are a specialized group of basal anthropoids, (2) Oligopithecus savagei may represent the earliest recognizable catarrhine, (3) Propliopithecus (= Aegvptopithecus) and Pliopithecus apparently represent the successive sister taxa to the modern catarrhines, (4) Dendropithecus and Proconsul are best regarded as basal catarrhines of modern aspect, and (5) Victoriapithecus is a primitive cercopithecoid monkey which represents the siter taxon of the extant Old World monkeys.

The evolutionary context of the first hominins

The relationships among the living apes and modern humans have effectively been resolved, but it is much more difficult to locate fossil apes on the tree of life because shared skeletal morphology does not always mean shared recent evolutionary history. Sorting fossil taxa into those that belong on the branch of the tree of life that leads to modern humans from those that belong on other closely related branches is a considerable challenge.

A reassessment of the phylogenetic relationships of Oreopithecus bambolii gervais

In recent years there have been renewed attempts to elucidate the phylogenetic affinities and taxonomic status of Oreopithecus bambolii from the late Miocene of Europe. The majority of previous workers who have studied the material have concluded that it represents a hominoid primate, albeit a rather specialized one. Several recent workers have revived the earlier suggestion that Oreopithecus may be a cercopithecoid primate, based mainly on presumed synapomorphies of the dentition. Although there are some general structural similarities between the cheek teeth of Oreopithecus and those of Old World monkeys, comparisons indicate that this resemblance is likely to be due to functional convergence, related to dietary similarities, rather than due to a close phyletic relationship. The cranio-dental features of Oreopithecus appear to be a combination of primitive catarrhine characters and autapomorphies. Much more informative evidence for determining the phyletic affinities of Oreopithecus is provided by the postcranial skeleton. Oreopithecus shares with the living hominoids a unique range of derived catarrhine features of the postcranium that are so detailed that there seems little possibility that they could have been developed independently in the two taxa. The present evidence best supports the conclusion that Oreopithecus has its closest affinities with the living hominoids. However, the relationships of Oreopithecus to taxa within the Hominoidea have proved difficult to ascertain, owing to a lack of synapomorphies with living representatives of the superfamily. In view of the uniquely derived facial characteristics of Oreopithecus bambolii, the species clearly warrants inclusion in a distinct hominoid family, the Oreopithecidae.

New postcranial remains of Victoriapithecus from the middle Miocene of Kenya

Abstract Recent collections at the middle Miocene site of Maboko Island in Kenya have yielded a relatively large sample of isolated postcranial bones that can be assigned with some degree of confidence to the early cercopithecid. Victoriapithecus. This paper provides a detailed description of the postcranial morphology of Victoriapithecus, and offers some general conclusions concerning its inferred locomotor behavior and phylogenetic status. The range of metrical and morphological variation exhibited by the material does not exceed that seen in modern species of Old World monkeys. This findings is consistent with recent re-interpretations of the cranio-dental material that indicate that only a single species of Victoriapithecus may be represented at Maboko Island. Victoriapithecus appears to be a relatively small (with an estimated average body weight of 3·5–4·0 kg), agile and active quadrupedal monkey, adapted to moving effectively in both arboreal and terrestrial settings. In its overall morphology, and probably also in its inferred locomotor behavior. Victoriapithecus is most closely similar to modern-day semi-terrestrial Old World monkeys.

Apes Among the Tangled Branches of Human Origins

The evolution of apes between 23 and 5 million years ago set the scene for the emergence of the first hominins in Africa. The detailed description of Ardipithecus ramidus (1) more than lived up to the buzz of anticipation that preceded it in the paleoanthropological community. A. ramidus is a purported hominin (the group comprising humans and their extinct relatives after they diverged from our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees) from the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia. The focus of attention has been on how A. ramidus may relate to later fossil hominins and to living apes and humans (see the first figure), but to appreciate the place of A. ramidus in human origins, we must also view it from the perspective of the hominoids (apes) that lived in the Miocene, 23 to 5 million years ago (see the second figure).

Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context

This volume 1 and its companion volume 2 present the results of new investigations into the geology, paleontology and paleoecology of the early hominin site of Laetoli in northern Tanzania. The site is one of the most important paleontological and paleoanthropological sites in Africa, worldrenowned for the discovery of fossils of the early hominin Australopithecus afarensis, as well as remarkable trails of its footprints. The first volume provides new evidence on the geology, geochronology, ecology, ecomorphology and taphonomy of the site. The second volume describes newly discovered fossil hominins from Laetoli, belonging to Australopithecus afarensis and Paranthropus aethiopicus, and presents detailed information on the systematics and paleobiology of the diverse associated fauna. Together, these contributions provide one of the most comprehensive accounts of a fossil hominin site, and they offer important new insights into the early stages of human evolution and its context

Cladistic Concepts and the Species Problem in Hominoid Evolution

Over the past 20 years, since the initial application of Hennigian phylogenetic principles to the study of human evolution, the usage of cladistic concepts has become increasingly popular in paleoanthropology (Eldredge and Tattersall, 1975; Delson et al., 1977; Tattersall and Eldredge, 1977; Bonde, 1977; Olson, 1978; White et al., 1981; Skelton et al., 1986; Wood and Chamberlain, 1986; Stringer, 1987; Chamberlain and Wood, 1987; Kimbel et al., 1988; Tobias, 1988; Groves, 1989). The rigorous operational framework, in conjunction with its potential for the application of Popperian deductive reasoning in testing inferences about character states and morphocline polarities upon which phylogenetic hypotheses are based, has made cladistics an attractive methodological approach, even among some of its initial antagonists (Nelson, 1970, 197la,b); Bonde, 1977; Bock, 1977; Szalay, 1977; Platnick, 1977, 1978, 1979; Platnick and Gaffney, 1977; Patterson, 1978; Mayr, 1968, 1981; but see Cartmill, 1981 for a critique of the utility of Popper’s model of scientific enquiry for testing phylogenetic interpretations).

Primate Biogeography and Ecology on the Sunda Shelf Islands: A Paleontological and Zooarchaeological Perspective

Sundaland, with its complicated history of island formation and landbridge connections with mainland Southeast Asia, has figured prominently in studies of primate biogeography. The non-human primates on Sundaland are taxonomically diverse (comprising 27 species), and they exhibit relatively high levels of provinciality and endemism. By combining archaeological and paleontological evidence, with data from molecular, paleoclimatological and paleoecological studies, it is possible to reconstruct the major zoogeographic events that took place in the formation of the present-day catarrhine primate community on the Sunda Shelf islands. It can be inferred that by the Late Pliocene the main islands of the Sunda Shelf had a primate fauna that included Pongo pygmaeus (Sumatra, Java and Borneo), Hylobates spp. of the lar-group (Sumatra, Mentawai Islands, Borneo, and Java), Macaca nemestrina (Sumatra, Mentawai Islands, Borneo, and Java), the common ancestor of the Trachypithecus auratus/cristatus clade (Java and Sumatra), and Presbytis spp. (Sumatra, Mentawai Islands, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java). Most of these taxa probably arrived during the Pretiglian cold phase, starting at ~2.8 Ma, when sea levels fell by more than 100 m. It is also likely that Nasalis larvatus (Borneo) and Simias concolor (Mentawai Islands) were already present as endemic taxa in the Late Pliocene, and that their last common ancestor had arrived in the Sunda islands by the early Pliocene. Soon after this initial period of colonization, Hylobates and Presbytis underwent rapid speciation as a consequence of vicariance and relictual survivorship, giving rise to P. thomasi on Sumatra, H. klossii and P. potenziani on the Mentawai Islands, H. albibarbis, H. muelleri, P. hosei, P. frontata, and P. rubicunda on Borneo, and H. moloch and P. comata on Java. During the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, probably associated with a cold climate maximum at ∼1.8 Ma, Presbytis melalophos and P. femoralis, along with Macaca fascicularis, colonized Sumatra, the Natuna Islands and Borneo from the Malay Peninsula. At about the same time, the orang-utan populations on Sumatra, Java and Borneo began to differentiate from each other. Hylobates lar, H. agilis and H. syndactylus extended their range from the Malay Pensinsula into Sumatra (and Java), probably during the Middle to Late Pleistocene, coincident with the arrival of Trachypithecus cristatus on mainland Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Pongo pygmaeus, Hylobates syndactylus and Macaca nemestrina were extirpated on Java, probably as a consequence of a combination of ecological changes and the impact of early hominin incursions.

A taxonomic revision of the small Catarrhine Primates from the early Miocene of East Africa

This paper presents a detailed systematic revision of the small catarrhine primates from the early Miocene of East Africa, recovered from sites in Western Kenya and in Uganda dated at between 22 and 17 m.y. Revised diagnoses and amended hypodigms for each of the species are presented. In addition to the currently identified taxa, Limnopithecus legetet Hopwood, 1933, Dendropithecus macinnesi (Le Gros Clark and Leakey, 1950) and Micropithecus clarki Fleagle and Simons, 1978, two further species are recognized. Limnopithecus evansi (MacInnes, 1943) is resurrected as a valid species, based primarily on previously described material from Songhor, and a new genus, Kalepithecus, is described here for the first time, in order to accommodate distinctive material from Songhor and Koru. The distribution of each species in time and space, and the phylogenetic relationships, are discussed in the light of this taxonomic revision.

A reassessment of the taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities of the fossil catarrhines from fort Ternan, Kenya

This paper presents a reassessment of the taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities of the fossil catarrhine primates from the important middle Miocene site of Fort Ternan in Kenya. Although the sample of specimens is rather small, the material can be attributed to at least five different species, identified here asKenyapithecus wickeri, Proconsul sp., a large species of oreopithecid,Simiolus sp., and a small species of catarrhine of indeterminate status.Kenyapithecus wickeri probably represents a conservative sister-taxon of the extant large hominoids. It is more derived than“Sivapithecus” africanus from Maboko Island, from which it can be distinguished at the generic level. A small species of catarrhine from Fort Ternan can be attributed toSimiolus. It is probably a different species fromSimiolus enjiessi from the early Miocene of East Africa, but additional material is needed to confirm its taxonomic distinctiveness. The occurrence of at least five species of catarrhine primates at Fort Ternan confirms that species diversity levels were as high during the middle Miocene as they had been during the early Miocene. However, the overall taxonomic and ecological composition of the middle Miocene catarrhine community was quite different, evidently due to a significant change in the local ecological setting. Taxonomic differences between the catarrhine faunas at Fort Ternan and Maboko Island can probably be explained as a consequence of a chronological separation between the two sites, and, to a lesser degree, to paleoecological differences.