A new Late Eocene anthropoid primate from Thailand

Yaowalak Chaimanee, Varavudh Suteethorn, Jean-Jacques Jaeger and Stéphane Ducrocq
Additional contact information
Yaowalak Chaimanee: Paleontological Section
Varavudh Suteethorn: Paleontological Section
Jean-Jacques Jaeger: Université Montpellier II
Stéphane Ducrocq: Université Montpellier II

Nature, 1997, vol. 385, issue 6615, 429-431

Abstract: Abstract The fossil record of anthropoid primates from the Middle Eocene of South Asia is so far restricted to two genera (Pondaungia cotteri Pilgrim, 1937 and Amphipithecus mogaungensis Colbert, 1937 from the Eocene Pondaung deposits of Burma) whose anthropoid status and phylogenetic position have long been under debate,1–6 because they represent the oldest highly derived fossil primates of anthropoid grade. Moreover, several new African taxa7–10, some of which are even older, have been recently included in the suborder Anthropoidea, suggesting an African origin for this group. Conversely, new fossil primates recently discovered in China (Eosimias) have been related to the most primitive representatives of Anthropoidea, alternatively suggesting an Asian origin and a probable Asian radiation centre11. We report here the discovery of a new anthropoid from the Thai Late Eocene locality of Krabi12,13, which displays several additional anthropoid characters with regard to those of the Eocene Burmese genera. This species, which is about the size of the Fayum Aegyptopithecus, can be related to the Burmese forms, and it further provides strong additional evidence for a southeast Asian evolutionary centre for anthropoids.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/385429a0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:385:y:1997:i:6615:d:10.1038_385429a0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/385429a0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().