A paleoecological model for the origin of higher primates

Cachel, Susan

doi:10.1016/0047-2484(79)90058-7

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Parallel evolution of an anthropoid primate grade in the Old and New Worlds is only defensible (lacking definitive morphological studies) if the selection pressures yielding such higher primates can be abstracted, analyzed, and presented in a paleoecological model (Cachel, 1979). Similar selection pressures must be seen to have acted upon presumably similar genomes to effect the similar morphological complexes characteristic of an anthropoid grade level of structural organization.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate tectonics and the problem of anthropoid origins

Cachel

1981

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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Using plate tectonic theory, geologic and geophysical determinants of South Atlantic opening are assessed during the Cretaceous through the Oligocene (approximately 135-25 m.y.B.P.1. This is done to evalute the feasibility of statements on paleontologic and neontologic distributional data that relate to African and South American separation as the South Atlantic was created. In particular, the question of anthropoid origins is examined in light of plate tectonic theory, and the idea that monophyly of the anthropoid grade is supported by continental drift is refuted. When geological and geophysical evidence is examined in detail, the occurrence of Tertiary transfer of primates between Africa and South America is improbable. Thus one must look to either North America or Middle America for the ancestors of the platyrrhines, and to Eurasia for the ancestors of the catarrhines. The problem of whether those ancestors were prosimians or anthropoids is not dealt with, because the question of whether the Platyrrhini and the Catarrhini are independently evolved from prosimian ancestors (anthropoid diphyly) or are evolved from ancestors that were already of an anthropoid level of structural organization (anthropoid monophyly) can only be resolved on biological grounds and at a level of analysis that allows one to distinguish between analogies developed in parallel, homologies caused by symplesiomorphy, and homologies caused by synapomorphy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate tectonics and the problem of anthropoid origins

Cachel

1981

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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“…An alternative explanation for the origin of distinctively anthropoid features was presented by S. Cachel (1979aCachel ( , 1979b. In Cachel's scheme, increasing global seasonality in the late Eocene required increased body size to mitigate internal temperature fluctuations and made fruit resources more predictable, making them a viable dietary resource for large-bodied primates (Cachel, 1979a).…”

Section: Cache!mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Cachel's scheme, increasing global seasonality in the late Eocene required increased body size to mitigate internal temperature fluctuations and made fruit resources more predictable, making them a viable dietary resource for large-bodied primates (Cachel, 1979a). Resurrecting Polyak's (1957) thesis that color vision evolved in primates to allow them to find ripe fruit by sight, Cachel suggested that increased body size, diurnality, and frugivory were all interrelated with the evolution of color vision (Cachel, 1979a, p. 356).…”

Section: Cache!mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were classically Simpsonian in approach in two ways. First, they were concerned with postulating the selective forces that drove the adaptive shift defining Anthropoidea, no matter whether anthropoids were descended from one (Cartmill, 1970) or two (Cachel, 1979a) lineages of non-anthropoids. Second, the explanation for the divergence of Anthropoidea from its predecessors and its subsequent adaptive radiation was sought in the adaptive significance of the distinctive features of the group.…”

Section: Adaptive Explanations For Anthropoid Originsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolving Perspectives on Anthropoidea

Ross

Kay

2004

Anthropoid Origins

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“…Various studies of primate morphology, particularly of dental features, suggest that anthropoids were originally generalized frugivores (Jolly, 1970; Hylander, 1975; Kay, 1977; Cachel, 1979; Andrews, 1981). There is a trend in the evolution of Old World monkeys toward increased relief in the cheek teeth and ultimately to the development of the most characteristic feature of living Old World monkeys, bilophodont molars (Szalay and Delson, 1979).…”

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Seed‐eating by West African cercopithecines, with reference to the possible evolution of bilophodont molars

Happel

1988

American J Phys Anthropol

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Data on tooth use in eating fruits and seeds were collected on 12 West African monkeys representing five species of cercopithecines, Cercopithecus aethiops, Cercopithecus campbelli, Cercocebus atys, Erythrocebus patas, and Papio papio. Field observations and information in the published literature were used to select fruits for captive feeding trials. A total of over 27,000 tests were conducted to determine the preferences of the monkeys for 78 fruits. Data were collected on the selection of fruit parts, as well as tooth use, in eating 88 fruit species. All five monkey species had remarkably similar fruit part preferences. Seeds were eaten in 86% of the tested fruits and represent the fruit part most frequently eaten by all the tested monkeys. With few exceptions, molars were used to puncture and crush the seeds. It is suggested that the development of bilophodont molars might be an adaptation by Old World monkeys to seed predation. Given their large size relative to other arboreal frugivores, seed predation could provide a dietary niche for Old World monkeys.

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A paleoecological model for the origin of higher primates

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Plate tectonics and the problem of anthropoid origins

Plate tectonics and the problem of anthropoid origins

Evolving Perspectives on Anthropoidea

Seed‐eating by West African cercopithecines, with reference to the possible evolution of bilophodont molars

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