Moyà-Solà Salvador, Alba David M, Almécija Sergio, Casanovas-Vilar Isaac, Köhler Meike, De Esteban-Trivigno Soledad, Robles Josep M, Galindo Jordi, Fortuny Josep
Institut Català de Paleontologia and Unitat d'Antropologia Biològica (Dipartimento de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal, i Ecologia), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jun 16;106(24):9601-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0811730106. Epub 2009 Jun 1.
The great ape and human clade (Primates: Hominidae) currently includes orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans. When, where, and from which taxon hominids evolved are among the most exciting questions yet to be resolved. Within the Afropithecidae, the Kenyapithecinae (Kenyapithecini + Equatorini) have been proposed as the sister taxon of hominids, but thus far the fragmentary and scarce Middle Miocene fossil record has hampered testing this hypothesis. Here we describe a male partial face with mandible of a previously undescribed fossil hominid, Anoiapithecus brevirostris gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle Miocene (11.9 Ma) of Spain, which enables testing this hypothesis. Morphological and geometric morphometrics analyses of this material show a unique facial pattern for hominoids. This taxon combines autapomorphic features--such as a strongly reduced facial prognathism--with kenyapithecine (more specifically, kenyapithecin) and hominid synapomorphies. This combination supports a sister-group relationship between kenyapithecins (Griphopithecus + Kenyapithecus) and hominids. The presence of both groups in Eurasia during the Middle Miocene and the retention in kenyapithecins of a primitive hominoid postcranial body plan support a Eurasian origin of the Hominidae. Alternatively, the two extant hominid clades (Homininae and Ponginae) might have independently evolved in Africa and Eurasia from an ancestral, Middle Miocene stock, so that the supposed crown-hominid synapomorphies might be homoplastic.
大型猿类和人类分支(灵长目:人科)目前包括猩猩、大猩猩、黑猩猩、倭黑猩猩和人类。人科动物何时、何地以及从哪个分类单元进化而来,是尚未解决的最令人兴奋的问题之一。在非洲猿科中,有人提出肯尼亚猿亚科(肯尼亚猿族 + 赤道猿族)是人科动物的姐妹分类单元,但迄今为止,中新世中期零碎且稀少的化石记录阻碍了对这一假说的验证。在此,我们描述了一种来自西班牙中新世中期(1190万年前)的、此前未描述过的化石人科动物短吻阿诺猿(Anoiapithecus brevirostris)的雄性部分面部及下颌骨,这使得对该假说的验证成为可能。对该材料进行的形态学和几何形态测量分析显示,类人猿具有独特的面部模式。这个分类单元将自近裔性状特征(如面部前突显著减少)与肯尼亚猿(更具体地说是肯尼亚猿族)和人科动物的共有衍征相结合。这种组合支持了肯尼亚猿族(格氏猿 + 肯尼亚猿)与人科动物之间的姐妹群关系。中新世中期这两个类群在欧亚大陆的存在以及肯尼亚猿族对原始类人猿颅后身体结构的保留,支持了人科动物起源于欧亚大陆的观点。或者,现存的两个人科分支(人亚科和猩猩亚科)可能分别从一个中新世中期的祖先种群在非洲和欧亚大陆独立进化而来,因此所谓的冠人科动物共有衍征可能是趋同的。