Implications of postcranial evidence for the origin of euprimates

Dagosto, Marian

doi:10.1016/0047-2484(88)90048-6

Cited by 201 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Though all manual distal phalanges identified for Eocene euprimates are unguliform, possessing a flattened apical tuft (which indicates the presence of a flattened nail rather than a claw or falcula), there appears to be substantial variation (Fig. 25) (Gregory, 1920;Dagosto, 1988;Gebo et al, 1991;Godinot, 1991Godinot, , 1992Franzen, 1993;Hamrick and Alexander, 1996;Rose et al, 2011;Ni et al, 2013). AMNH 127167 reveals Notharctus to have long, narrow, curved manual distal phalanges, possibly suggesting a more claw-like nail or functional tegulae (Godinot, 1991).…”

Section: Phalangesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hands of early primates

Boyer

Yapuncich

Chester

et al. 2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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Questions surrounding the origin and early evolution of primates continue to be the subject of debate. Though anatomy of the skull and inferred dietary shifts are often the focus, detailed studies of postcrania and inferred locomotor capabilities can also provide crucial data that advance understanding of transitions in early primate evolution. In particular, the hand skeleton includes characteristics thought to reflect foraging, locomotion, and posture. Here we review what is known about the early evolution of primate hands from a comparative perspective that incorporates data from the fossil record. Additionally, we provide new comparative data and documentation of skeletal morphology for Paleogene plesiadapiforms, notharctines, cercamoniines, adapines, and omomyiforms. Finally, we discuss implications of these data for understanding locomotor transitions during the origin and early evolutionary history of primates. Known plesiadapiform species cannot be differentiated from extant primates based on either intrinsic hand proportions or hand-to-body size proportions. Nonetheless, the presence of claws and a different carpometacarpal joint form in plesiadapiforms indicate different grasping mechanics. Notharctines and cercamoniines have intrinsic hand proportions with extremely elongated proximal phalanges and digit rays relative to metacarpals, resembling tarsiers and galagos. But their hand-to-body size proportions are typical of many extant primates (unlike those of tarsiers, and possibly Teilhardina, which have extremely large hands). Non-adapine adapiforms and omomyids exhibit additional carpal features suggesting more limited dorsiflexion, greater ulnar deviation, and a more habitually divergent pollex than observed plesiadapiforms. Together, features differentiating adapiforms and omomyiforms from plesiadapiforms indicate increased reliance on vertical prehensileclinging and grasp-leaping, possibly in combination with predatory behaviors in ancestral euprimates. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:33-78,

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Section: Phalangesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hands of early primates

Boyer

Yapuncich

Chester

et al. 2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…The nature of these dichotomies may play out in the evolution of longevity. We propose that the lack of significant differences between arboreal and terrestrial euarchontans, and possibly marsupials, may be the result in part of the long history and persistence of arboreality in their evolutionary histories (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38). Unlike euarchontans, however, marsupials are not characterized by increased longevity in general (Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…However, among both euarchontans and marsupials, arboreal species do not possess greater longevities than terrestrial species. Arboreality is the primitive condition for primates, initially evolved in an ancestral euarchontan (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). Marsupials also probably are primitively arboreal (34,(36)(37)(38), with subsequent and repeated events of terrestriality (38).…”

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Arboreality has allowed for the evolution of increased longevity in mammals

Shattuck

Williams²

2010

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

117

111

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The evolutionary theory of aging predicts that species will experience delayed senescence and increased longevity when rates of extrinsic mortality are reduced. It has long been recognized that birds and bats are characterized by lower rates of extrinsic mortality and greater longevities than nonvolant endotherms, presumably because flight reduces exposure to terrestrial predators, disease, and environmental hazards. Like flight, arboreality may act to reduce extrinsic mortality, delay senescence, and increase longevity and has been suggested as an explanation for the long lifespans of primates. However, this hypothesis has yet to be tested in mammals in general. We analyze a large dataset of mammalian longevity records to test whether arboreal mammals are characterized by greater longevities than terrestrial mammals. Here, we show that arboreal mammals are longer lived than terrestrial mammals at common body sizes, independent of phylogeny. Subclade analyses demonstrate that this trend holds true in nearly every mammalian subgroup, with two notable exceptions-metatherians (marsupials) and euarchontans (primates and their close relatives). These subgroups are unique in that each has experienced a long and persistent arboreal evolutionary history, with subsequent transitions to terrestriality occurring multiple times within each group. In all other clades examined, terrestriality appears to be the primitive condition, and species that become arboreal tend to experience increased longevity, often independently in multiple lineages within each clade. Adoption of an arboreal lifestyle may have allowed for increased longevity in these lineages and in primates in general. Overall, these results confirm the fundamental predictions of the evolutionary theory of aging.senescence | extrinsic mortality | terrestriality | marsupials | primates S enescence, or aging, is an intrinsic biological phenomenon that limits an organism's maximum potential lifespan, even in the absence of extrinsic sources of mortality such as predation, disease, and environmental hazards. Its evolution is of particular interest in life-history studies (1, 2), in part because it is not immediately clear why senescence persists in the presence of natural selection, which might be expected to eliminate it. The evolutionary theory of aging, in its several, nonmutually exclusive forms (3-8), proposes that senescence is the result of late-acting, deleterious mutations that accumulate because of the diminishing effectiveness of selection with increasing age. Extrinsic mortality is one major factor that contributes to the accumulation of deleterious mutations by limiting exposure of these late-acting mutations to selection; thus, the evolutionary theory of aging predicts that extrinsic mortality will be a principal determinate of the rate of senescence in age-structured populations (9). This theory predicts that populations experiencing high extrinsic mortality rates will accumulate more deleterious mutations, evolve earlier senescence and reproduction, low...

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“…Analyses of the dentition have concluded either that the adapiforms consist of nested clades that originated within the lemuriform radiation (17) or that adapiforms as a whole represent the sister group to the lemuriforms (19,20). Analyses of the wrist (21,22) and ankle (21,23) regions have concluded that lemuriforms evolved directly from adapiform ancestors. These hypotheses have different implications for the timing of lemuriform (and thus strepsirrhine) divergence.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ancient single origin for Malagasy primates.

Yoder

Cartmill

Ruvolo

et al. 1996

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

254

238

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We report new evidence that bears decisively on a long-standing controversy in primate systematics. DNA sequence data for the complete cytochrome b gene, combined with an expanded morphological data set, confirm the results of a previous study and again indicate that all extant Malagasy lemurs originated from a single common ancestor. These results, as well as those from other genetic studies, call for a revision of primate classifications in which the dwarf and mouse lemurs are placed within the Afro-Asian lorisiforms. The phylogenetic results, in agreement with paleocontinental data, indicate an African origin for the common ancestor of lemurs and lorises (the Strepsirrhini). The molecular data further suggest the surprising conclusion that lemurs began evolving independently by the early Eocene at the latest. This indicates that the Malagasy primate lineage is more ancient than generally thought and places the split between the two strepsirrhine lineages well before the appearance of known Eocene fossil primates. We conclude that primate origins were marked by rapid speciation and diversification sometime before the late Paleocene.Although strepsirrhine (we use the term strepsirrhine to define the living tooth-combed primates, their immediate ancestor, and all of its descendants) primates comprise more than one-third of the living members of the primate order, there is no current consensus concerning their phylogeny, classification, or time of divergence. Phylogenetic debate centers around two groups of Malagasy lemurs, the mouse and dwarf lemur group (family Cheirogaleidae) and the aye-aye (family Daubentoniidae). Morphologists inferred from the basicranial anatomy of the cheirogaleids that these animals are actually members of the Afro-Asian loris group (1, 2). This hypothesis was widely accepted and reflected in the majority of modern primate classifications (3-6). Cladistic studies of DNA sequences (7-9) have failed to support the lorisiform association, however, and have found instead that cheirogaleids belong within a Malagasy primate clade, thereby agreeing with an early synthetic view (10) and with genetic distance studies (11-13). The unusual morphological specializations of the aye-aye (e.g., ever-growing rodent-like incisors, clawed digits, and an extremely elongated middle finger) have made it difficult to place within strepsirrhine phylogeny also. One morphology-based hypothesis claims that the aye-aye comprises a monotypic sister group to all remaining strepsirrhines (14, 15); another holds that the phylogenetic position of the aye-aye is indeterminate relative to all other primates (16). DNA sequence studies have likewise given conflicting results. A study of mitochondrial DNA placed the aye-aye at the base of the strepsirrhine clade (7), whereas a study of nuclear DNA placed it securely with the other Malagasy primates (9).The resolution of these controversies is important for our understanding of both primate phylogeny and historical bio- Another area of debate concerns strepsirrhine ...

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Implications of postcranial evidence for the origin of euprimates

Cited by 201 publications

References 37 publications

Hands of early primates

Hands of early primates

Arboreality has allowed for the evolution of increased longevity in mammals

Ancient single origin for Malagasy primates.

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