Hominoid teeth with chimpanzee-and gorilla-like features from the Miocene of Kenya: implications for the chronology of ape-human divergence and biogeography of Miocene hominoids (original) (raw)
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Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Extant African great apes and humans are thought to have diverged from each other in the Late Miocene. However, few hominoid fossils are known from Africa during this period. Here we describe a new genus of great ape (Nakalipithecus nakayamai gen. et sp. nov.) recently discovered from the early Late Miocene of Nakali, Kenya. The new genus resembles Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (9.6 -8.7 Ma, Greece) in size and some features but retains less specialized characters, such as less inflated cusps and better-developed cingula on cheek teeth, and it was recovered from a slightly older age (9.9 -9.8 Ma). Although the affinity of Ouranopithecus to the extant African apes and humans has often been inferred, the former is known only from southeastern Europe. The discovery of N. nakayamai in East Africa, therefore, provides new evidence on the origins of African great apes and humans. N. nakayamai could be close to the last common ancestor of the extant African apes and humans. In addition, the associated primate fauna from Nakali shows that hominoids and other noncercopithecoid catarrhines retained higher diversity into the early Late Miocene in East Africa than previously recognized. hominoid evolution
New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution
Nature, 2017
The evolutionary history of extant hominoids (humans and apes) remains poorly understood. The African fossil record during the crucial time period, the Miocene epoch, largely comprises isolated jaws and teeth, and little is known about ape cranial evolution. Here we report on the, to our knowledge, most complete fossil ape cranium yet described, recovered from the 13 million-year-old Middle Miocene site of Napudet, Kenya. The infant specimen, KNM-NP 59050, is assigned to a new species of Nyanzapithecus on the basis of its unerupted permanent teeth, visualized by synchrotron imaging. Its ear canal has a fully ossified tubular ectotympanic, a derived feature linking the species with crown catarrhines. Although it resembles some hylobatids in aspects of its morphology and dental development, it possesses no definitive hylobatid synapomorphies. The combined evidence suggests that nyanzapithecines were stem hominoids close to the origin of extant apes, and that hylobatid-like facial feat...
Hominoid primates from a new Miocene locality named Meswa Bridge in Kenya
Journal of Human Evolution, 1981
The remains of a species of Proconsul from early Miocene deposits at Meswa Bridge are described. Associated dental, mandibular, maxillary and cranial specimens represent several immature individuals. They are equivalent in size to Proconsul nyanzae but differ morphologically, particularly in the greater breadth and degree of flare of the deciduous and permanent molars, but lack of adult individuals from Meswa Bridge makes it difficult to compare them adequately with existing species. They are therefore left unassigned as an indeterminate species of Proconsul.
New information about African late middle Miocene to latest Miocene (13-5.5 Ma) Hominoidea
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In Africa, relatively few hominoid fossils are known from the late middle Miocene and late Miocene periods corresponding to the time span 13-5.5 million years ago, compared to the preceding and subsequent periods from which several thousand specimens have been reported from many different localities. In Eurasia, in contrast, many hominoid fossils are known from the Late Miocene period from diverse localities scattered from Spain in the west to China in the East. The scarcity of hominoid fossils from this period in Africa lent support to the hypothesis that the ancestors of extant African Apes and hominids may have evolved in Eurasia and then dispersed to Africa during the late Miocene where they gave rise to the extant Gorilla, Pan and Homo lineages. We herein document additional hominoid fossils from Berg Aukas, Namibia, aged ca 12-13 Ma, and rectify the locality data concerning the Niger proto-chimpanzee fossil. The new data indicate that Africa was not devoid of hominoids during the period under discussion, and they support the hypothesis that the extant African Apes and hominids may have evolved autochthonously within the continent.
Miocene Hominids and the Origins of the African Apes and Humans
Annual Review of Anthropology, 2010
In the past 20 years, new discoveries of fossil apes from the Miocene have transformed our ideas about the timing, geography, and causes of the evolution of the African apes and humans. Darwin predicted that the common ancestor of African apes and humans would be found in Africa. Yet the majority of fossil great apes are from Europe and Asia. I briefly review the fossil record of great apes and then examine the main competing hypotheses of our origins, African or European, inspired by these recent discoveries, concluding that elements of both ideas are likely to be correct. Given current interpretations of the paleobiology of fossil apes and relationships among living hominids, I suggest that the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans was morphologically unique, but more chimpanzee-like than hominin-like: a knuckle-walker with a chimpanzee-sized brain, canine sexual dimorphism, and many probable behavioral similarities to living chimpanzees.
Recently recovered Kenyapithecus mandible and its implications for great ape and human origins
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1993
We report here a Kenyapithecus africanus juvenile mandible recovered from middle Miocene (ca. 14-16 million years) deposits of Maboko Island (Lake Victoria), Kenya. Symphyseal and dental attributes of the mandible distinguish K. africanus, a species widely regarded as the earliest known member of the great ape and human clade, from other Miocene large-bodied hominoids. The Maboko Island mandible exhibits a markedly proclined symphyseal axis, massive inferior transverse torus, mesiodistally narrow, high-crowned, and strongly procumbent lateral incisor, and molars with cingula restricted to the median buccal cleft. Although the presence of some of these conditions in Kenyapithecus was suggested earlier, the fragmentary and ill-preserved nature of previously known specimens led certain authorities to doubt their validity. Our assessment of mandibular and dental morphology indicates that K. africanus diverged after Proconsul and Griphopithecus but prior to the last common ancestor of Si...
Palaeontological evidence for an Oligocene divergence between Old World monkeys and apes
Nature, 2013
Apes and Old World monkeys are prominent components of modern African and Asian ecosystems, yet the earliest phases of their evolutionary history have remained largely undocumented 1. The absence of crown catarrhine fossils older than 20 million years (Myr) has stood in stark contrast to molecular divergence estimates of 25-30 Myr for the split between Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes), implying long ghost lineages for both clades 2-4 .Here we describe the oldest known fossil 'ape', represented by a partial mandible preserving dental features that place it with 'nyanzapithecine' stem hominoids. Additionally, we report the oldest stem member of the Old World monkey clade, represented by a lower third molar. Both specimens were recovered from a precisely dated 25.2-Myr-old stratum in the Rukwa Rift, a segment of the western Branch of the East African Rift in Tanzania. These finds extend the fossil record of apes and Old World monkeys well into the Oligocene epoch of Africa, suggesting a possible link between diversification of crown catarrhines and changes in the African landscape brought about by previously unrecognized tectonic activity 5 in the East African rift system.
The postcranium of Miocene hominoids: Were dryopithecines merely “dental apes”?
Primates, 1976
This paper reviews the non-dental morphological configuration of Miocene hominoids with special reference to the hypothesis of linear relationships between certain fossil species and living analogues. Metrical analysis of the wrist shows that Dryopithecus africanus and Pliopithecus vindobonensis are unequivocally affiliated with the morphological pattern of quadrupedal monkeys. Similar analyses of the fossil hominoid elbow shows that they are more cercopithecoid-like than hominoid-like. Multivariate analysis of the P. vindobonensis shoulder in the matrix of extant Anthropoidea indicate that this putative hylobatine fossil shows no indication of even the initial development of hominoid features. The total morphological pattern of the D. africanus forelimb as assessed by principal coordinates analysis of allometrically adjusted shape variables has little resemblance to Pan. Likewise, the feet and proximal femora of the Miocene fossils are unlike any living hominoid species. Even the D. africanus skull is similar to extant cercopithecoids in several features, Althougl, ancestors cannot be expected to resemble descendants in every way, the striking dissimilarity between Miocene and extant hominoids seems to eliminate the consideration of a direct ancestor-descendant relationship between specific Miocene and modern forms.