New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys

Iyad S. Zalmout (), William J. Sanders (), Laura M. MacLatchy, Gregg F. Gunnell, Yahya A. Al-Mufarreh, Mohammad A. Ali, Abdul-Azziz H. Nasser, Abdu M. Al-Masari, Salih A. Al-Sobhi, Ayman O. Nadhra, Adel H. Matari, Jeffrey A. Wilson and Philip D. Gingerich ()
Additional contact information
Iyad S. Zalmout: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
William J. Sanders: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
Laura M. MacLatchy: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
Gregg F. Gunnell: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
Yahya A. Al-Mufarreh: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Mohammad A. Ali: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Abdul-Azziz H. Nasser: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Abdu M. Al-Masari: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Salih A. Al-Sobhi: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Ayman O. Nadhra: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Adel H. Matari: Saudi Geological Survey, Paleontology Unit, PO Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia
Jeffrey A. Wilson: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan
Philip D. Gingerich: Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7304, 360-364

Abstract: The divergence of apes and Old World monkeys The primate fossil record is uneven, and substantial gaps remain. One gap is the divergence of cercopithecoids (Old World monkeys) and hominoids (apes and humans) within Old World higher primates (Catarrhini). This event was previously thought to have occurred sometime during the early Oligocene–early Miocene interval in Afro-Arabia, but the discovery of a new stem catarrhine in western Saudi Arabia narrows that gap. The Saudi specimen, dated to the mid-Oligocene around 29 million to 28 million years ago, shows no crown catarrhine specializations other than the presence of a tubular ectotympanic, suggesting that the divergence of Old World monkeys and apes happened after that date. The size of the cranium indicates a medium-sized primate, between 15 and 20 kilograms in body mass.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09094 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:466:y:2010:i:7304:d:10.1038_nature09094

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

DOI: 10.1038/nature09094

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 ().