Genetic Divergence of Orangutan Subspecies (Pongo pygmaeus)

Zhang, Yunwu; Ryder, Oliver A.; Zhang, Yaping

doi:10.1007/s002390010182

Cited by 49 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(63 reference statements)

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“…A recent vegetation model for the region found that a continuous belt of lowland tropical rainforest should have persisted (7), and this conclusion is supported by pollen analysis of LGM river and offshore sediments from the South China Sea (8,11). However, an increasing number of genetic studies show that migration between Sumatra and Borneo was extremely limited during the LGP even though the major islands were connected for most of the last 70 kyr (25)(26)(27)(28)(29), and possible rainforest refugia were inferred using termite morphology and taxonomic groupings (10), which worked well with other estimates derived from vicariant murine rodents (27). A savanna vegetation barrier such as we interpreted from the Batu δ 13 C profile can explain such limited crossover of rainforest specialists between east and west Sundaland.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Forest contraction in north equatorial Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period

Wurster

Bird

Bull

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

189

149

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Today, insular Southeast Asia is important for both its remarkably rich biodiversity and globally significant roles in atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Despite the fundamental importance of environmental history for diversity and conservation, there is little primary evidence concerning the nature of vegetation in north equatorial Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period (LGP). As a result, even the general distribution of vegetation during the Last Glacial Maximum is debated. Here we show, using the stable carbon isotope composition of ancient cave guano profiles, that there was a substantial forest contraction during the LGP on both peninsular Malaysia and Palawan, while rainforest was maintained in northern Borneo. These results directly support rainforest “refugia” hypotheses and provide evidence that environmental barriers likely reduced genetic mixing between Borneo and Sumatra flora and fauna. Moreover, it sheds light on possible early human dispersal events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Forest contraction in north equatorial Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period

Wurster

Bird

Bull

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

189

149

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“…[17][18][19][20][21] de Vos 22,23 has argued that the Indonesian paleoenvironmental record reveals a more recent divergence, while Harrison et al 15 hypothesized that orangutans dispersed into Sundaland during a cold phase in the late Pliocene (~2.7 mya) and fragmented at the start of the Pleistocene (~1.8 mya), becoming genetically distinct subsequent to this. Unfortunately little is known about the biogeography of Early Pleistocene orangutans, due in part to the limited fossil record, lack of securely dated sites, and ambiguity regarding the taxonomic identification of primate material.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental tissue proportions in fossil orangutans from mainland Asia and Indonesia

Smith

Bacon²,

Demeter

et al. 2011

Hum Origins Res

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Orangutans (Pongo) are the only great ape genus with a substantial Pleistocene and Holocene fossil record, demonstrating a much larger geographic range than extant populations. In addition to having an extensive fossil record, Pongo shows several convergent morphological similarities with Homo, including a trend of dental reduction during the past million years. While studies have documented variation in dental tissue proportions among species of Homo, little is known about variation in enamel thickness within fossil orangutans. Here we assess dental tissue proportions, including conventional enamel thickness indices, in a large sample of fossil orangutan postcanine teeth from mainland Asia and Indonesia. We find few differences between regions, except for significantly lower average enamel thickness (AET) values in Indonesian mandibular first molars. Differences between fossil and extant orangutans are more marked, with fossil Pongo showing higher AET in most postcanine teeth. These differences are significant for maxillary and mandibular first molars. Fossil orangutans show higher AET than extant Pongo due to greater enamel cap areas, which exceed increases in enamel-dentine junction length (due to geometric scaling of areas and lengths for the AET index calculation). We also find greater dentine areas in fossil orangutans, but relative enamel thickness indices do not differ between fossil and extant taxa. When changes in dental tissue proportions between fossil and extant orangutans are compared with fossil and recent Homo sapiens, Pongo appears to show isometric reduction in enamel and dentine, while crown reduction in H. sapiens appears to be due to preferential loss of dentine. Disparate selective pressures or developmental constraints may underlie these patterns. Finally, the finding of moderately thick molar enamel in fossil orangutans may represent an additional convergent dental similarity with Homo erectus, complicating attempts to distinguish these taxa in mixed Asian faunas.

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“…The islands of Sumatra and Borneo were fully formed 500 thousand years ago (Kya) but were reconnected by land bridges during the two last glaciations, ∼130-200 Kya and ∼10-100 Kya, respectively (Muir et al 2000;Hughes et al 2006). Estimates of the average time to the most recent common ancestor for both populations based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and a small number of microsatellites and autosomal and X-linked loci are ∼1.5-2.5 Mya (Zhi et al 1996;Kaessmann et al 2001;Zhang et al 2001), but to our knowledge, there are no published estimates of the population split time.…”

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confidence: 99%

A new approach to estimate parameters of speciation models with application to apes

Becquet¹,

Przeworski²

2007

Genome Res.

237

302

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How populations diverge and give rise to distinct species remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology, with important implications for a wide range of fields, from conservation genetics to human evolution. A promising approach is to estimate parameters of simple speciation models using polymorphism data from multiple loci. Existing methods, however, make a number of assumptions that severely limit their applicability, notably, no gene flow after the populations split and no intralocus recombination. To overcome these limitations, we developed a new Markov chain Monte Carlo method to estimate parameters of an isolation-migration model. The approach uses summaries of polymorphism data at multiple loci surveyed in a pair of diverging populations or closely related species and, importantly, allows for intralocus recombination. To illustrate its potential, we applied it to extensive polymorphism data from populations and species of apes, whose demographic histories are largely unknown. The isolation-migration model appears to provide a reasonable fit to the data. It suggests that the two chimpanzee species became reproductively isolated in allopatry ∼850 Kya, while Western and Central chimpanzee populations split ∼440 Kya but continued to exchange migrants. Similarly, Eastern and Western gorillas and Sumatran and Bornean orangutans appear to have experienced gene flow since their splits ∼90 and over 250 Kya, respectively.

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Genetic Divergence of Orangutan Subspecies (Pongo pygmaeus)

Cited by 49 publications

References 48 publications

Forest contraction in north equatorial Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period

Forest contraction in north equatorial Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Period

Dental tissue proportions in fossil orangutans from mainland Asia and Indonesia

A new approach to estimate parameters of speciation models with application to apes

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