Yaobin Fan , Leah K. Fehringer , Wei Liao , Hua Liang , Wei Wang , Peter S. Ungar
{"title":"Dental microwear and diets of mainland fossil Pongo from the Mid-Pleistocene of southern China","authors":"Yaobin Fan , Leah K. Fehringer , Wei Liao , Hua Liang , Wei Wang , Peter S. Ungar","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103565","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103565","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 103565"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141536017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cristina Stan , Virgil Drăgușin , Ștefan Vasile , Márton Venczel , Claire E. Terhune
{"title":"Dental remains of Plio–Pleistocene Cercopithecidae (Mammalia: Primates) from Romania","authors":"Cristina Stan , Virgil Drăgușin , Ștefan Vasile , Márton Venczel , Claire E. Terhune","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103544","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The superfamily Cercopithecoidea had a broad spatial distribution and occupied a wide variety of habitats across Europe from the Late Miocene until the Middle Pleistocene. Cercopithecines, such as macaques, showed more flexibility in habitat preferences, whereas colobines tended to be more sensitive to environmental differences. In Romania, only a few Pliocene and Pleistocene fossil sites have yielded primate remains. In this paper, we revise selected specimens previously listed in site reviews, and we describe several unpublished specimens from the Plio–Pleistocene fossil localities of Berești (Mammal Neogene [MN], MN14–MN15), Mălușteni (MN14), Ciuperceni-2 (MN15b), and Betfia (MN18). For each, we provide detailed descriptions, comparisons to other relevant material, and updated taxonomic assignments. We also present an updated biochronology and provide a paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on the taxonomic composition of the faunal assemblages described from these primate localities. The colobine monkey <em>Dolichopithecus ruscinensis</em>, from Berești, Mălușteni, and Ciuperceni-2, was present during the Early Pliocene in Romania. <em>Mesopithecus monspessulanus</em> is also known from Mălușteni, as is <em>Paradolichopithecus</em> sp. The Early Pleistocene site Betfia yielded a molar germ (in crypt; Betfia-XIII) and a deciduous premolar (Betfia-IX), both belonging to a <em>Macaca sylvanus</em> subspecies. <em>Macaca sylvanus</em> ssp. occurrences from Betfia-XIII and Betfia-IX offer an important perspective for understanding the chronostratigraphic range and geographic distribution of this species during the Early Pleistocene. The paleoenvironmental descriptions from Ciuperceni-2 show that primates were distributed in a mosaic habitat, with open and forested areas and a warm Mediterranean climate. This differs from Mălușteni, Berești, and Betfia, where a dry continental phase with an open landscape is inferred. Our review of paleoenvironmental conditions of Romanian primate localities provides a paleoecological framework for understanding the habitat preferences of extinct primates.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 103544"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141479924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brody T Hovatter, Stephen G B Chester, Gregory P Wilson Mantilla
{"title":"New records of early Paleocene (earliest Torrejonian) plesiadapiforms from northeastern Montana, USA, provide a window into the diversification of stem primates.","authors":"Brody T Hovatter, Stephen G B Chester, Gregory P Wilson Mantilla","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103500","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103500","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plesiadapiforms (putative stem primates) appear in the fossil record shortly after the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary and subsequently radiated throughout the Paleocene into a taxonomically and ecomorphologically diverse group. The oldest known plesiadapiforms come from early Puercan (the oldest North American Land Mammal 'age' [NALMA] of the Cenozoic) deposits in northeastern Montana, and all records of Puercan plesiadapiforms are taxonomically restricted to members of the Purgatoriidae and the enigmatic genus Pandemonium. Plesiadapiform diversity substantially increased in the following Torrejonian NALMA, but the sparse record of faunas between the Puercan and the well-known middle and late Torrejonian has hampered our understanding of this important interval in early primate evolution. Here we report new plesiadapiform dental fossils from early Torrejonian (To1) deposits from the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation in northeastern Montana that record several poorly known taxa including members of the Purgatoriidae, Paromomyidae and Pandemonium, and that document the largest and most diverse assemblage of To1 plesiadapiforms known. We describe a new species of the purgatoriid Ursolestes (Ursolestes blissorum, sp. nov.) that represents the largest plesiadapiform known from the early Paleocene and, among other taxa, provides additional evidence that the temporal range of purgatoriids extended into the Torrejonian. Large sample sizes of the oldest known paromomyid, Paromomys farrandi, allowed us to document intraspecific variability and one undescribed tooth locus. Our observations illuminate changes in dental morphology of some taxa that occurred in To1 and may inform the acquisition of certain diagnostic plesiadapiform dental characters. We evaluate plesiadapiform species richness, mean body mass and body-mass disparity through the Paleocene and reveal unrecognized levels of richness in To1 and a general trend of stable body mass and body-mass disparity. Our findings contribute to documented patterns of plesiadapiform provincialism in the early Paleocene and shed light on the early stages of their Torrejonian radiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":" ","pages":"103500"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140960720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A new primate community from the earliest Oligocene of the Atlantic margin of Northwest Africa: Systematic, paleobiogeographic, and paleoenvironmental implications","authors":"Laurent Marivaux , Mohamed Benammi , Lahssen Baidder , Omar Saddiqi , Sylvain Adnet , Anne-Lise Charruault , Rodolphe Tabuce , Johan Yans , Mouloud Benammi","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103548","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We report a new Paleogene primate community discovered in the uppermost part of the Samlat Formation outcropping on the continental shore of the Rio de Oro, east of the Dakhla peninsula (in the south of Morocco, near the northern border of Mauritania). Fossils consist of isolated teeth, which were extracted by wet screening of estuarine sediments (DAK C<sub>2</sub>) dating from the earliest Oligocene (ca. 33.5 Ma). These dental remains testify to the presence of at least eight primate species, documenting distinct families, four of which are among the Anthropoidea (Oligopithecidae [<em>Catopithecus</em> aff. <em>browni</em>], Propliopithecidae [?<em>Propliopithecus</em> sp.], Parapithecidae [<em>Abuqatrania</em> cf. <em>basiodontos</em>], and Afrotarsiidae [<em>Afrotarsius</em> sp.]) and four in the Strepsirrhini (a Djebelemuridae [cf. ‘<em>Anchomomys</em>’ <em>milleri</em>], a Galagidae [<em>Wadilemur</em> cf. <em>elegans</em>], a possible lorisiform [<em>Orogalago saintexuperyi</em> gen. et sp. nov.], and a strepsirrhine of indeterminate affinities [<em>Orolemur mermozi</em> gen. et sp. nov.]). This record of various primates at Dakhla represents the first Oligocene primate community from Northwest Africa, especially from the Atlantic margin of that landmass. Considering primates plus rodents (especially hystricognaths), the taxonomic proximity at the generic (even specific) level between DAK C<sub>2</sub> (Dakhla) and the famous Egyptian fossil-bearing localities of the Jebel Qatrani Formation (Fayum Depression), either dating from the latest Eocene (L-41) or from the early Oligocene, suggests the existence of an east–west ‘trans-North African’ environmental continuum during the latest Eocene–earliest Oligocene time interval. The particularly diverse mammal fauna from DAK C<sub>2</sub>, recorded within the time window of global climate deterioration characterizing the Eocene/Oligocene transition, suggests that this tropical region of northwest Africa was seemingly less affected, if at all, by the cooling and associated paleoenvironmental and biotic changes documented at that time or at least that the effects were delayed. The expected densely forested paleoenvironment bordering the western margin of North Africa at the beginning of the early Oligocene probably offered better tropical refugia than higher latitudes or more inland areas during the cooling episode.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 103548"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248424000563/pdfft?md5=ad5a4e4e501b80ebb652c149521b7522&pid=1-s2.0-S0047248424000563-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141423782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rachel F. Perlman , Jacinta C. Beehner , Andreas Koenig , Amy Lu
{"title":"Consumption of underground storage organs is associated with improved energetic status in a graminivorous primate","authors":"Rachel F. Perlman , Jacinta C. Beehner , Andreas Koenig , Amy Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103545","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103545","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Early hominin species likely had access to open, grassy habitats where periodic reliance on underground storage organs (USOs) is hypothesized to have played a crucial dietary role. As the only living graminivorous primate today, geladas (<em>Theropithecus gelada</em>) provide a unique perspective for understanding the energetic consequences of seasonal consumption of USOs. Geladas rely heavily on above-ground grasses throughout the year, but when grass is seasonally less available, they feed more on USOs. To assess whether USOs fit the definition of fallback foods (i.e., foods that are difficult to access, less preferred, or both), we examined how foraging effort (measured via time spent feeding and moving) and energetic status (measured via urinary C-peptide) fluctuated during seasonal dietary changes in a population of wild geladas in the Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. If, indeed, USOs are fallback foods, we predicted an increase in foraging effort and a decline in energetic status during the dry season, when geladas rely more heavily on USOs. We collected behavioral and physiological data from 13 adult gelada males across a 13-month period. As expected, we found that male geladas spent more time moving during drier months. However, counter to the hypothesis that USOs are fallback foods in geladas, urinary C-peptide concentrations were significantly higher during the dry season. We suggest that USOs may represent an energy-rich food item for geladas, but it remains unclear why USOs are not consumed year-round. Future work is needed to better understand seasonal variation in the availability, nutrient content, and digestibility of USOs. However, results indicate that exploiting USOs seasonally could have been a valuable dietary strategy for the evolutionary success of early hominins.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 103545"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141263743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gabrielle A. Russo , Thomas C. Prang , Faye R. McGechie , Sharon Kuo , Carol V. Ward , Craig Feibel , Isaiah O. Nengo
{"title":"An ape partial postcranial skeleton (KNM-NP 64631) from the Middle Miocene of Napudet, northern Kenya","authors":"Gabrielle A. Russo , Thomas C. Prang , Faye R. McGechie , Sharon Kuo , Carol V. Ward , Craig Feibel , Isaiah O. Nengo","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103519","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>An ape partial postcranial skeleton (KNM-NP 64631) was recovered during the 2015–2021 field seasons at Napudet, a Middle Miocene (∼13 Ma) locality in northern Kenya. Bony elements representing the shoulder, elbow, hip, and ankle joints, thoracic and lumbar vertebral column, and hands and feet, offer valuable new information about the body plan and positional behaviors of Middle Miocene apes. Body mass estimates from femoral head dimensions suggest that the KNM-NP 64631 individual was smaller-bodied (c. 13–17 kg) than some Miocene taxa from eastern Africa, including <em>Ekembo nyanzae,</em> and probably <em>Equatorius africanus</em> or <em>Kenyapithecus wickeri,</em> and was more comparable to smaller-bodied male <em>Nacholapithecus kerioi</em> individuals. Similar to many Miocene apes, the KNM-NP 64631 individual had hip and hallucal tarsometatarsal joints reflecting habitual hindlimb loading in a variety of postures, a distal tibia with a large medial malleolus, an inflated humeral capitulum, probably a long lumbar spine, and a long pollical proximal phalanx relative to femoral head dimensions. The KNM-NP 64631 individual departs from most Early Miocene apes in its possession of a more steeply beveled radial head and deeper humeral zona conoidea, reflecting enhanced supinating–pronating abilities at the humeroradial joint. The KNM-NP 64631 individual also differs from Early Miocene <em>Ekembo heseloni</em> in having a larger elbow joint (inferred from radial head size) relative to the mediolateral width of the lumbar vertebral bodies and a more asymmetrical talar trochlea, and in these ways recalls inferred joint proportions for, and talocrural morphology of, <em>N. kerioi</em>. Compared to most Early Miocene apes, the KNM-NP 64631 individual likely relied on more forelimb-dominated arboreal behaviors, perhaps including vertical climbing (e.g., extended elbow, hoisting). Moreover, the Napudet ape partial postcranial skeleton suggests that an arboreally adapted body plan characterized by relatively large (here, based on joint size) forelimbs, but lacking orthograde suspensory adaptations, may not have been ‘unusual’ among Middle Miocene apes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 103519"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141249774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hominin turnover at Laetoli is associated with vegetation change: Multiproxy evidence from the large herbivore community","authors":"Elizabeth N. Fillion , Terry Harrison","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103546","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Vegetation change in eastern Africa during the Pliocene would have had an important impact on hominin adaptation and ecology, and it may have been a key driver of hominin macroevolution, including the extinction of <em>Australopithecus</em> and the emergence of <em>Paranthropus</em> and <em>Homo</em>. The Pliocene paleoanthropological site of Laetoli in Tanzania provides an opportunity to investigate the relationship between vegetation change and hominin turnover because it encompasses the time period when grass cover was spreading across eastern Africa and because hominin species turnover occurred locally at Laetoli, with <em>Paranthropus aethiopicus</em> in the Upper Ndolanya Beds (UNB) replacing <em>Australopithecus afarensis</em> in the Upper Laetolil Beds (ULB). However, it remains unresolved how the vegetation of the UNB and the ULB differed from each other. To examine differences between the two stratigraphic units, multiple proxies—hypsodonty, mesowear, and stable carbon isotopes of tooth enamel (δ<sup>13</sup>C<sub>enamel</sub>)—are used to infer the diets of large herbivores and compare the dietary guild structure of the large herbivore communities. All three proxies indicate an increase in the abrasiveness and C<sub>4</sub>-content in the diets of the large herbivores in the UNB relative to those in the ULB. After inferring the diets of species based on all three proxies, the large herbivore community of the UNB had a greater proportion of grazers and a smaller proportion of mixed feeders than in the ULB but maintained a similar proportion of browsers and frugivores. The ULB community has few modern-day analogs, whereas the UNB community is most closely analogous to those in modern African grasslands. Thus, hominin turnover at Laetoli is associated with an increase in grass cover within a woodland-grassland mosaic and is part of a broader transformation of the herbivore community structure.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 103546"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141090438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tommaso Mori , Alessandro Riga , Ahmet Ihsan Aytek , Katerina Harvati
{"title":"Virtual reconstruction and geometric morphometric analysis of the Kocabaş hominin fossil from Turkey: Implications for taxonomy and evolutionary significance","authors":"Tommaso Mori , Alessandro Riga , Ahmet Ihsan Aytek , Katerina Harvati","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103517","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103517","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Kocabaş specimen comes from a travertine quarry near the homonymous village in the Denizli basin (Turkey). The specimen comprises three main fragments: portions of the right and left parietal and left and right parts of the frontal bone. The fossil was assumed to belong to the <em>Homo erectus</em> s.l. hypodigm by some authors, whereas others see similarities with Middle Pleistocene fossils (Broken Hill 1/Kabwe, Bodo, or Ceprano). Here, we present the first attempt to make a complete reconstruction of the missing medial portion of the frontal bone and a comprehensive geometric morphometric analysis of this bone. We restored the calotte by aligning and mirroring the three preserved fragments. Afterward, we restored the missing portion by applying the thin-plate spline interpolation algorithm of target fossils onto the reconstructed Kocabaş specimen. For the geometric morphometric analyses, we collected 80 landmarks on the frontal bone (11 osteometric points, 14 bilateral curve semilandmarks, and 41 surface semilandmarks). The comparative sample includes 21 fossils from different chronological periods and geographical areas and 30 adult modern humans from different populations. Shape analyses highlighted the presence in Kocabaş of features usually related to Middle Pleistocene <em>Homo</em>, such as a developed supraorbital torus associated with a relatively short frontal squama and reduced post-toral sulcus. Cluster analysis and linear discriminant analysis classification procedure suggest Kocabaş being part of the same taxonomic unit of Eurasian and African Middle Pleistocene <em>Homo</em>. In light of our results, we consider that attributing the Kocabaş hominin to <em>H</em>. <em>erectus</em> s.l. may be unwarranted. Results of our analyses are compatible with different evolutionary scenarios, but a more precise chronological framework is needed for a thorough discussion of the evolutionary significance of this specimen. Future work should clarify its geological age, given uncertainties regarding its stratigraphic provenance.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 103517"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248424000253/pdfft?md5=45f648c5a4d0524bc627beb067226a35&pid=1-s2.0-S0047248424000253-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141083549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating ancestral ranges and biogeographical processes in early hominins","authors":"Yeganeh Sekhavati , David Strait","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103547","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Historical biogeography provides crucial insights into understanding the evolutionary history of hominins. We applied maximum-likelihood and biogeographical stochastic mapping to infer the ancestral ranges of hominins and estimate the frequency of biogeographical events. These events were inferred using two time-calibrated phylogenetic trees that differ in the position of <em>Australopithecus sediba</em>. Results suggest that regardless of which phylogeny was selected, Northcentral Africa was the preferred ancestral region for the ancestor of the <em>Homo</em>–<em>Pan</em> clade, as well as the ancestor of <em>Sahelanthropus</em> and later hominins. The northern and middle part of eastern Africa was the preferred ancestral region for several clades originating at subsequent deep nodes of the trees (∼5–4 Ma). The choice of tree topology had one important effect on results: whether hominin ancestors appearing after ∼4 Ma were widespread or endemic. These different patterns highlight the biogeographic significance of the phylogenetic relationships of <em>A. sediba.</em> Overall, the results showed that dispersal, local extinction, and sympatry played vital roles in creating the hominin distribution, whereas vicariance and jump dispersal were not as common. The results suggested symmetry in the directionality of dispersals. Distance probably influenced how rapidly taxa colonized a new region, and dispersals often followed the closest path. These findings are potentially impacted by the imperfection of the fossil record, suggesting that the results should be interpreted cautiously.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 103547"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141083550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brody T. Hovatter , Stephen G.B. Chester , Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla
{"title":"New records of early Paleocene (earliest Torrejonian) plesiadapiforms from northeastern Montana, USA, provide a window into the diversification of stem primates","authors":"Brody T. Hovatter , Stephen G.B. Chester , Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103500","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103500","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plesiadapiforms (putative stem primates) appear in the fossil record shortly after the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary and subsequently radiated throughout the Paleocene into a taxonomically and ecomorphologically diverse group. The oldest known plesiadapiforms come from early Puercan (the oldest North American Land Mammal ‘age’ [NALMA] of the Cenozoic) deposits in northeastern Montana, and all records of Puercan plesiadapiforms are taxonomically restricted to members of the Purgatoriidae and the enigmatic genus <em>Pandemonium</em>. Plesiadapiform diversity substantially increased in the following Torrejonian NALMA, but the sparse record of faunas between the Puercan and the well-known middle and late Torrejonian has hampered our understanding of this important interval in early primate evolution. Here we report new plesiadapiform dental fossils from early Torrejonian (To1) deposits from the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation in northeastern Montana that record several poorly known taxa including members of the Purgatoriidae, Paromomyidae and <em>Pandemonium</em>, and that document the largest and most diverse assemblage of To1 plesiadapiforms known. We describe a new species of the purgatoriid <em>Ursolestes</em> (<em>Ursolestes blissorum</em>, sp. nov.) that represents the largest plesiadapiform known from the early Paleocene and, among other taxa, provides additional evidence that the temporal range of purgatoriids extended into the Torrejonian. Large sample sizes of the oldest known paromomyid, <em>Paromomys farrandi</em>, allowed us to document intraspecific variability and one undescribed tooth locus. Our observations illuminate changes in dental morphology of some taxa that occurred in To1 and may inform the acquisition of certain diagnostic plesiadapiform dental characters. We evaluate plesiadapiform species richness, mean body mass and body-mass disparity through the Paleocene and reveal unrecognized levels of richness in To1 and a general trend of stable body mass and body-mass disparity. Our findings contribute to documented patterns of plesiadapiform provincialism in the early Paleocene and shed light on the early stages of their Torrejonian radiation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"192 ","pages":"Article 103500"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141039404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}