Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
J Hum Evol. 2018 Dec;125:50-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.09.002. Epub 2018 Oct 26.
A new species of the "small-bodied ape" Simiolus is described here that extends the temporal range of the genus to the end of the Middle Miocene. As such, it is one of the few species of fossil primates known from East Africa during a time of significant change in which Old World monkeys and crown hominoids replaced the primitive ape-like primates that had dominated the early Miocene. The dynamics of this important event in our evolutionary history are obscured by the small number of fossil primates known from Africa between 14 and 6 million years ago, as well as persistent ambiguity regarding the phylogenetic status of the ape-like Miocene primates. The new species described here helps to fill this temporal gap, and our analysis of its phylogenetic position suggests that Simiolus and many other Miocene primates were not only ape-like, they were, indeed, stem hominoids. Judging from the available material, the new species may be the smallest known ape.
本文描述了一种新的“小体型猿猴”（SimioLus）物种，该物种将该属的时间范围扩展到中中新世末期。因此，它是少数几种已知来自东非的化石灵长类动物之一，当时旧世界猴和原始人科已经取代了在早中新世占主导地位的原始似猿灵长类动物。在我们进化历史上的这一重要事件中，由于已知的来自非洲的化石灵长类动物数量很少，以及似猿的中新世灵长类动物的系统发育地位仍然存在持续的模糊性，因此这一动态情况并不清楚。本文描述的新物种有助于填补这一时间上的空白，我们对其系统发育位置的分析表明，SimioLus 和许多其他中新世灵长类动物不仅似猿，而且实际上是原始人科的祖先。从现有材料来看，这种新物种可能是已知最小的猿类。
