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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.