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The Fossil Record and Evolutionary History of Hylobatids

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Evolution of Gibbons and Siamang

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

The fossil record documenting the evolution of hylobatids is extremely poor, so details of their phylogenetic and geographic origins and subsequent evolutionary history are obscure. Based on molecular clock estimates, hylobatids diverged from other hominoids during the early Miocene , at ~19 Ma, and crown hylobatids originated at ~8 Ma. The oldest fossil hylobatid is Yuanmoupithecus from the late Miocene of China, dating to ~7–9 Ma, which represents the primitive sister taxon of crown hylobatids. The molecular and paleontological evidence indicates that there was a ghost lineage for the initial 10 myrs of hylobatid evolutionary history, with no trace of a fossil record. Hylobatids presumably originated in Africa during the early Miocene, but the timing of their arrival in Asia and their early geographic distribution is unknown. Since there are no suitable fossil precursors for Yuanmoupithecus at older sites in China, it is likely that stem hylobatids migrated northwards from Southeast Asia during the late Miocene, but the Neogene fossil record from this region is poorly documented. Hylobatids occur at a number of Pleistocene archaeological and paleontological sites throughout southern China and Southeast Asia, but they tend to be relatively rare elements of the primate fauna. These are generally referable to extant lineages and species, except for Bunopithecus sericus from the early or middle Pleistocene of China. This contribution reviews what is known about the evolutionary history of the hylobatids based on the fossil evidence, but since there is much that we do not know and cannot deduce about the phylogeny of hylobatids from the incomplete fossil record, a fuller appreciation of the evolutionary history relies on what can also be learned from comparative anatomy and molecular data.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Editors for inviting me to prepare a contribution for this volume, and to Ulrich Reichard and an anonymous reviewer for helpful suggestions that improved the manuscript. I thank the following institutions and their staff for allowing me access to the fossil specimens and comparative material in their care: American Museum of Natural History, New York; National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi; The Natural History Museum, London; Muséum National D’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Institut Català de Paleontologia ‘Miquel Crusafont’, Sabadell; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden; Naturhistorisches Museum, Basel; Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna; Landesmuseum ‘Joanneum’, Graz; Magyar Állami Földtani Intézet, Budapest; and Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing; Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing; Yunnan Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute, Kunming; and Geological Survey, Bangkok. Numerous colleagues have contributed to the research and ideas presented here, but the following deserve special mention: Peter Andrews, David Begun, Ray Bernor, Eric Delson, John Fleagle, Ji Xueping, Jin Changzhu, Pan Yuerong, Martin Pickford, Bill Sanders, and Zhang Yingqi.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Terry Harrison

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  1. Department of Anthropology and Center for Ecology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois, USA

    Ulrich H. Reichard

  2. Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan

    Hirohisa Hirai

  3. Sezione di Biodiversità Tropicale, MUSE—Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy

    Claudia Barelli

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Harrison, T. (2016). The Fossil Record and Evolutionary History of Hylobatids. In: Reichard, U., Hirai, H., Barelli, C. (eds) Evolution of Gibbons and Siamang. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-5614-2_4

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