New hominoid primates from the middle Miocene Chinji Formation, Potwar Plateau, Pakistan

Abstract

We report here eight new hominoid specimens, attributable to Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus^1,2, from the middle Miocene Chinji Formation of Pakistan. Hominoids previously described from the Chinji Formation cannot be precisely located although they most probably come from the upper two-thirds of the formation^3–9. The new material, from the middle portion of the formation, is ∼12–13 Myr old based on magnetostratigraphy (refs 10, 11 and N. Johnson, personal communication). Two earlier specimens are supposedly from the underlying Kamlial Formation^6,12, although the best candidate for an earliest Ramapithecus or Sivapithecus is an undescribed molar, AMNH 19565B, collected by Brown¹³ from a locality believed to be basal Chinji¹⁴, for which magnetostratigraphy indicates an age of 14.5 Myr (ref. 11 and N. Johnson, personal communication). Small hominoids are definitely known in the older Manchar Formation in Sind¹⁵. Together with the material discussed here, the new specimens record the earliest phases of Asian hominoid evolution following dispersal from Africa–Arabia¹⁶, and the apparent division of large hominoids into ‘African’ (lineages leading to Pan, Gorilla and Homo) and ‘Asian’ (leading to Pongo) clades at a minimum of 13 Myr^17–19, probably more.