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Anthropoid
Origins
The
evolutionary origin of anthropoid or “higher” primates
remains one of the most hotly contested issues in primate and human
evolution. Pertinent questions include: (1) What is the phylogenetic
position of Anthropoidea with respect to other living and fossil
primates? (2) Where and when did the anthropoid clade originate?
(3) Did the large number of (derived) morphological and molecular
characters that distinguish living anthropoids from all other primates
evolve all at once or in mosaic fashion? (4) If anthropoids acquired
their unique features through mosaic evolution, by what sequence
did this occur?
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| Figure
1: Life restoration of Eosimias
centennicus, an early anthropoid primate from the middle
Eocene Heti Formation, Shanxi Province, PRC. Eosimias
was a tiny (91–179 g), tree-dwelling primate that probably
ate fruits and insects. Illustration by Nancy Perkins.
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Recent expeditions
by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Vertebrate
Paleontology & Paleoanthropology (Academia Sinica, Beijing, PRC)
have greatly advanced our knowledge of early fossil anthropoids
in China. For example, our team discovered the complete lower dentition
of the 40 million-year-old anthropoid Eosimias centennicus
along the Yellow River in southern Shanxi Province in May 1995.
These and other specimens show that primitive anthropoids inhabited
eastern Asia millions of years before they are represented by such
nearly complete fossils in the African fossil record. Because the
nearest living relative of anthropoid primates (the primate Tarsius)
occurs only in Southeast Asia and because some of the earliest and
most primitive fossil anthropoids are known from Asia, it seems
likely that the anthropoid clade actually originated on the Asian
landmass.
Additional fossil
evidence is necessary to understand more fully the diversity, anatomy,
and evolutionary position of Eosimias and other early Asian
anthropoids. Our ongoing field and laboratory research has been
funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic
Society, the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, and the Carnegie Museum
of Natural History.
For further
information about Eosimias, please see "Searching
for Our Primate Ancestors in China," available online at
the Center
for the Study of Chinese Prehistory web site (article originally
published in Volume LXIII, Number 2, Carnegie
Magazine Online). |
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