New perspectives on anthropoid origins

Williams, Blythe A.; Kay, Richard F.; Kirk, E. Christopher

doi:10.1073/pnas.0908320107

Cited by 115 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…In the process of evolution, this has served as a competitive advantage, but at a great price: an extremely high metabolic turnover compared with tissue volume [15] that is managed well in young adults, but not in the aged, since becoming 60+ years old is new in an evolutionary perspective [16–18]. In this in vivo study of humans, we found that aging was associated with a thinning of the photoreceptor layer and a thickening of the RPE-BM layer at the foveal minimum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of aging and lifestyle on photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium: cross-sectional study in a healthy Danish population

Harris

Subhi

Sørensen

2017

Pathobiology of Aging & Age-related Diseases

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Photoreceptors and their supporting retinal pigment epithelium constitute the key functional parts of the retina. Here, a study was undertaken to show how aging and lifestyle factors affect the photoreceptor layer and the retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch’s membrane complex (RPE-BM) in vivo in a healthy Danish population using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. This was a cross-sectional study of healthy humans aged ≥50 years. All participants were interviewed for medical history and lifestyle factors. Maculae of all participants were scanned using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. The thickness of the photoreceptor layer and the RPE-BM was measured on one eye from each participant. In 150 eyes of 150 participants, it was found that aging was associated with a decrease in the thickness of the photoreceptor layer (−0.143 μm/year, P = 0.031) and an increase in the thickness of the RPE-BM layer (0.100 μm/year, P = 0.029) at the foveal minimum. Regarding lifestyle factors, alcohol intake or BMI were not associated with any significant trend, but physical inactivity and smoking had effects on the photoreceptor layer (decreased thickness) and the RPE-BM layer (increased thickness) indicating an accelerated aging process of the macula. Taken together, aging affects photoreceptors and the RPE-BM, and these aging trends are accelerated in smokers and the physically inactive.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of aging and lifestyle on photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium: cross-sectional study in a healthy Danish population

Harris

Subhi

Sørensen

2017

Pathobiology of Aging & Age-related Diseases

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“…Although their affinities are widely debated, most of the fragmentary early (Paleocene to mid-Eocene) fossils that have been proposed recently as candidate basal anthropoids (Eosimias, Algeripithecus, Biretia, Altiatlasius, Anthrasimias) exhibit some combination of diminutive size, moderately trenchant cheek teeth, and enlarged orbits, suggesting derivation from a small, visually predatory ancestor. 101,[108][109][110][111][112][113] Can we then still attribute the origin of the distinctive euprimate traits to a basal adaptive shift involving visually directed predation? I am now inclined to think that the whole notion of a defining adaptive shift that accounts for ''primate origins'' is another hallucination born of ignorance.…”

Section: Primate Origins?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate origins, human origins, and the end of higher taxa

Cartmill

2012

Evolutionary Anthropology

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When people learn that I study human evolution and we start talking about it, they sometimes ask me, “How long ago did the first humans live?” My answer is usually another question: “What do you mean by 'humans'?” That response seems as baffling and wrong‐headed to them as their question seems to me, and it usually takes us a while to straighten things out. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…Accordingly, tarsiers are not only allocated to their own family (Tarsiidae) and superfamily (Tarsioidea), but also to their own infraorder (Tarsiiformes). Debate over the phyletic position of tarsiiformes is longstanding [3], but recent phylogenies have unequivocally united tarsiers with anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes and humans) in the semiorder Haplorhini [4,5]. Thus, the functional and behavioural ecology of tarsiers has the potential to inform hypotheses focused on the origin of anthropoid primates [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The consensus view-that stem haplorhines were diurnal and that this heritage is partly obscured by a reversion to nocturnality in tarsiers [3]-helps account for one of the most striking aspects of the tarsier visual system: their outsized eyes (figure 1b; [6]). It has long been suggested that the extreme ocular hypertrophy of tarsiers is related to the absence of a tapetum lucidum (the structure that results in the phenomenon of 'eye shine'; [14]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferred L/M cone opsin polymorphism of ancestral tarsiers sheds dim light on the origin of anthropoid primates

et al. 2013

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Tarsiers are small nocturnal primates with a long history of fuelling debate on the origin and evolution of anthropoid primates. Recently, the discovery of M and L opsin genes in two sister species, Tarsius bancanus (Bornean tarsier) and Tarsius syrichta (Philippine tarsier), respectively, was interpreted as evidence of an ancestral long-to-middle (L/M) opsin polymorphism, which, in turn, suggested a diurnal or cathemeral (arrhythmic) activity pattern. This view is compatible with the hypothesis that stem tarsiers were diurnal; however, a reversion to nocturnality during the Middle Eocene, as evidenced by hyperenlarged orbits, predates the divergence of T. bancanus and T. syrichta in the Late Miocene. Taken together, these findings suggest that some nocturnal tarsiers possessed high-acuity trichromatic vision, a concept that challenges prevailing views on the adaptive origins of the anthropoid visual system. It is, therefore, important to explore the plausibility and antiquity of trichromatic vision in the genus Tarsius. Here, we show that Sulawesi tarsiers (Tarsius tarsier), a phylogenetic out-group of Philippine and Bornean tarsiers, have an L opsin gene that is more similar to the L opsin gene of T. syrichta than to the M opsin gene of T. bancanus in non-synonymous nucleotide sequence. This result suggests that an L/M opsin polymorphism is the ancestral character state of crown tarsiers and raises the possibility that many hallmarks of the anthropoid visual system evolved under dim (mesopic) light conditions. This interpretation challenges the persistent nocturnal-diurnal dichotomy that has long informed debate on the origin of anthropoid primates.

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New perspectives on anthropoid origins

Cited by 115 publications

References 111 publications

Effect of aging and lifestyle on photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium: cross-sectional study in a healthy Danish population

Effect of aging and lifestyle on photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium: cross-sectional study in a healthy Danish population

Primate origins, human origins, and the end of higher taxa

Inferred L/M cone opsin polymorphism of ancestral tarsiers sheds dim light on the origin of anthropoid primates

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