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Part IV - Evolutionary Transitions: From Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Norman Owen-Smith
Norman Owen-Smith
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Primates (order Primata) are basically herbivores, but are mostly not so large and mainly forest-dwelling. They are represented by a dazzling diversity of species throughout tropical forests where fruits are produced and trees retain foliage almost year-round. The platyrrhine (‘flat-nosed’) monkeys found in South America split off from the haplorhine (‘simple-nosed’) suborder inhabiting the ‘Old World’ tropics early in the Eocene ~50 Ma. Prosimians (bushbabies, lemurs and allies) diverged even earlier during the late Cretaceous 74 Ma, based on genetic evidence, and are most diverse in Madagascar. The monkeys inhabiting Africa and Asia (Cercopithecoidea) are separated from the apes (Hominoidea), which lack tails, at superfamily level. Among apes, the gibbons, found solely in Asia, are placed in a different family (Hylobatidae) from the remainder (Hominidae). Humans are allied with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes and P. paniscus) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in the latter family, but allocated to a distinct subfamily, the Homininae. Ecologically, we have diverged from other apes in habitat, locomotion and diet.

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Only in Africa
The Ecology of Human Evolution
 , pp. 247 - 343
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Suggested Further Reading

Jablonski, N; Frost, S. (2010) Cercopithecoidea. In Werdelin, L; Sanders, WJ (eds) Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 393–428.Google Scholar

References

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Suggested Further Reading

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Suggested Further Reading

Potts, R. (2012) Environmental and behavioural evidence pertaining to the evolution of early Homo. Current Anthropology 53(Suppl. 6):S299–S317.Google Scholar
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