New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

Isaiah Nengo (), Paul Tafforeau, Christopher C. Gilbert, John G. Fleagle, Ellen R. Miller, Craig Feibel, David L. Fox, Josh Feinberg, Kelsey D. Pugh, Camille Berruyer, Sara Mana, Zachary Engle and Fred Spoor
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Isaiah Nengo: De Anza College
Paul Tafforeau: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, CS-40220
Christopher C. Gilbert: Hunter College of the City University of New York
John G. Fleagle: Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University
Ellen R. Miller: Wake Forest University, Winston Salem
Craig Feibel: Rutgers University, New Brunswick
David L. Fox: University of Minnesota
Josh Feinberg: University of Minnesota
Kelsey D. Pugh: The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Camille Berruyer: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, CS-40220
Sara Mana: Salem State University
Zachary Engle: Rutgers University, Piscataway
Fred Spoor: University College London

Nature, 2017, vol. 548, issue 7666, 169-174

Abstract: Abstract 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 features evolved multiple times during catarrhine evolution.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/nature23456

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