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The Eocene Origin of Anthropoid Primates

Adaptation, Evolution, and Diversity

  • Chapter
Anthropoid Origins

Part of the book series: Advances in Primatology ((AIPR))

Abstract

One of the few previous attempts to model anthropoid origins emphasized apparent global climatic changes at the Eocene—Oligocene boundary (now placed at 34 MA) that may have served as the driving force for changes in primate geographic distribution southward and for the evolutionary origin of key new dietary and foraging adaptations (Cachel, 1979, 1981). The most recent proponent of the idea that anthropoid origin was a geologically sudden event associated with profound environmental change at the Eocene—Oligocene transition has been Gingerich (1993). In recent years, however, the view of the Eocene—Oligocene boundary as an important threshold for anthropoid origins has been supplanted by new interpretations based on research in geology and dating (Bown and Kraus, 1988; Van Couvering and Harris, 1991; Kap-pelman et al., 1992; Rasmussen et al, 1992; Gingerich, 1993), Afro-Arabian paleontology (de Bonis et al., 1988; Thomas et al., 1988, 1989, 1991; Simons, 1989, 1990, 1992; Godinot, Ghapter 10, this volume; Godinot and Mahboubi, 1992; Hartenberger and Marandat, 1992), and functional anatomy (Rasmussen and Simons, 1992). Evidence now demonstrates that the anthropoid clade underwent a significant radiation in the late Eocene of Africa, where prosimi-ans were apparently scarce, and that these early anthropoids did not differ appreciably from their prosimian contemporaries on other continents in basic dietary and sensory adaptations or in size.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke Primate Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 27705, USA

    Elwyn L. Simons

  2. Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130, USA

    D. Tab Rasmussen

  3. Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, 80225, USA

    Thomas M. Bown

  4. Duke University Primate Center, Durham, North Carolina, 27706, USA

    Prithijit S. Chatrath

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  1. Elwyn L. Simons
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  2. D. Tab Rasmussen
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  4. Prithijit S. Chatrath
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA

    John G. Fleagle

  2. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Richard F. Kay

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Simons, E.L., Rasmussen, D.T., Bown, T.M., Chatrath, P.S. (1994). The Eocene Origin of Anthropoid Primates. In: Fleagle, J.G., Kay, R.F. (eds) Anthropoid Origins. Advances in Primatology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9197-6_8

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