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. 2012 Jun 26;109(26):10293-7.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200644109. Epub 2012 Jun 4.

Late Middle Eocene primate from Myanmar and the initial anthropoid colonization of Africa

Yaowalak Chaimanee  1 , Olivier Chavasseau, K Christopher Beard, Aung Aung Kyaw, Aung Naing Soe, Chit Sein, Vincent Lazzari, Laurent Marivaux, Bernard Marandat, Myat Swe, Mana Rugbumrung, Thit Lwin, Xavier Valentin, Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein, Jean-Jacques Jaeger
Affiliations

Late Middle Eocene primate from Myanmar and the initial anthropoid colonization of Africa

Yaowalak Chaimanee et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Reconstructing the origin and early evolutionary history of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes, and humans) is a current focus of paleoprimatology. Although earlier hypotheses frequently supported an African origin for anthropoids, recent discoveries of older and phylogenetically more basal fossils in China and Myanmar indicate that the group originated in Asia. Given the Oligocene-Recent history of African anthropoids, the colonization of Africa by early anthropoids hailing from Asia was a decisive event in primate evolution. However, the fossil record has so far failed to constrain the nature and timing of this pivotal event. Here we describe a fossil primate from the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar, Afrasia djijidae gen. et sp. nov., that is remarkably similar to, yet dentally more primitive than, the roughly contemporaneous North African anthropoid Afrotarsius. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Afrasia and Afrotarsius are sister taxa within a basal anthropoid clade designated as the infraorder Eosimiiformes. Current knowledge of eosimiiform relationships and their distribution through space and time suggests that members of this clade dispersed from Asia to Africa sometime during the middle Eocene, shortly before their first appearance in the African fossil record. Crown anthropoids and their nearest fossil relatives do not appear to be specially related to Afrotarsius, suggesting one or more additional episodes of dispersal from Asia to Africa. Hystricognathous rodents, anthracotheres, and possibly other Asian mammal groups seem to have colonized Africa at roughly the same time or shortly after anthropoids gained their first toehold there.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Striking morphological resemblance between the right upper molars (M2) of the Asian eosimiiform Afrasia djijidae and the contemporaneous African eosimiiform Afrotarsius libycus supports an Asia-to-Africa anthropoid dispersal during the middle Eocene. The regions where the two taxa were discovered are positioned on a paleogeographic map of the Old World during the late Eocene (35 Ma) drawn by Ron Blakey (http://www2.nau.edu/rcb7). (Scale bar, 1 mm.)
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
SEM images of the teeth of Afrasia djijidae gen. et sp. nov. (A–G) from the Pondaung Formation (Myanmar) and Afrotarsius libycus (H–K) from Dur At-Talah (Libya). (A) Right M2 (NMMP-81) (holotype) in occlusal view. (B) Right M1 (NMMP-85) in occlusal view. (C–E) Right M2 (NMMP-79) in occlusal (C), oblique buccal (D), and lingual (E) views. (F and G) Right M3 (NMMP-77) in occlusal (F) and oblique buccal (G) views. (H) Left M2 (DT1-33) in occlusal view (mirror image). (I) Right M2 (DT1-34) in occlusal view. (J) Left M2 (DT1-35) (holotype) in occlusal view (mirror image). (K) Right M3 (DT1-36) in occlusal view. (H–K pictures are from ref. .)
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Cladogram illustrating the phylogenetic positions of Afrasia djijidae and Afrotarsius libycus within Paleogene anthropoids. Tree length = 1,071 steps; consistency index = 0.422; retention index = 0.534; rescaled consistency index = 0.226. The node lettered A indicates the anthropoid clade. Values above the branches are Bremer indices; values below the branches are bootstrap support (1,000 replications).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Evidence for an Asian origin of stem anthropoids.
    Kay RF. Kay RF. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26;109(26):10132-3. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1207933109. Epub 2012 Jun 13. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012. PMID: 22699505 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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