Avaria-Llautureo Jorge, Püschel Thomas A, Meade Andrew, Baker Joanna, Nicholson Samuel L, Venditti Chris
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Division, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS, United Kingdom.
Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PE, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Aug 12;122(32):e2423833122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2423833122. Epub 2025 Aug 5.
One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with exceptionally warm conditions in tropical forests at northern latitudes (henceforth the ). However, this notion has proven difficult to test given the overall uncertainty about both geographic locations and paleoclimates of ancestral species. By the resolution of both challenges, we reveal that early primates dispersed and radiated in higher latitudes, through diverse climates, including cold, arid, and temperate conditions. Contrary to expectations of the warm tropical forest hypothesis, warmer global temperatures had no effect on dispersal distances or the speciation rate. Rather, the amount of change in local temperature and precipitation substantially predicted geographic and species diversity. Our results suggest that nontropical, changeable environments exerted strong selective pressures on primates with higher dispersal ability - promoting the primate radiation and their subsequent colonization of tropical climates millions of years after their origin.
关于灵长类动物进化最具影响力的假说之一假定，它们的起源、辐射和主要扩散与北纬热带森林异常温暖的条件有关（以下简称“该假说”）。然而，鉴于祖先物种的地理位置和古气候总体存在不确定性，这一观点已被证明难以验证。通过解决这两个挑战，我们发现早期灵长类动物在更高纬度地区扩散和辐射，经历了包括寒冷、干旱和温带条件在内的多种气候。与温暖热带森林假说的预期相反，全球气温升高对扩散距离或物种形成速率没有影响。相反，当地温度和降水量的变化量在很大程度上预测了地理和物种多样性。我们的结果表明，非热带的多变环境对具有较高扩散能力的灵长类动物施加了强大的选择压力——促进了灵长类动物的辐射以及它们在起源数百万年后对热带气候的后续殖民。
