TY - JOUR
T1 - Early pliocene cercopithecidae from woranso-mille (Central Afar, Ethiopia) and the origins of the Theropithecus oswaldi lineage
AU - Frost, Stephen R.
AU - Jablonski, Nina G.
AU - Haile-Selassie, Yohannes
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the government of the Afar Regional State of Ethiopia for facilitating fieldwork permits. We also thank Getachew Senishaw, Alemu Ademasu, Thomas Getachew and Yared Assefa of the Paleoanthropology Laboratory of the National Museum of Ethiopia for laboratory space and access to the original fossil specimens, field participants of the Woranso-Mille Project for the fossil discoveries, and Liz Russell for photography. Sarah Elton, Eric Delson, two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor all made helpful comments that improved this manuscript; we thank them for their efforts. The National Science Foundation (BCS-0234320, BCS-0542037, and BCS-1124705), the Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation grants to YHS supported the field and laboratory work. SF thanks the University of Oregon for support of this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - A large series of fossil cercopithecids has been recovered from the hominid-bearing Woranso-Mille site, Afar State, northeastern Ethiopia. Here we report the taxonomy of those specimens from the Am-Ado, Aralee Issie, Korsi Dora, Makah Mera, and Mesgid Dora collection areas, which are all roughly contemporaneous and dated to between 3.6 and 3.8 million years ago. This series includes a minimum of two cercopithecine and three colobine species. Theropithecus oswaldi cf. darti is by far the most common species in the assemblage, making up over 90% of identifiable cercopithecid specimens. There is also at least one other species of papionin, which cannot be currently assigned to a genus. The colobines are here allocated to Cercopithecoides cf. meaveae and two other species, one small and one large, that cannot be currently assigned to genus.The T.oswaldi cf. darti series from Woranso-Mille is both the earliest and largest identified to date. It documents the earliest occurrence of the T.oswaldi lineage and strongly suggests that parallel evolution of molar morphology has occurred within the genus between T.oswaldi and Theropithecus brumpti. Given the dominance of monkeys at Woranso-Mille, and the preponderance of Theropithecus among cercopithecids, T.o. cf. darti is likely to be the most common mammal present at the 3.6-3.8 million-years-old localities of the Woranso-Mille study area. Some explanations for this unusual occurrence are explored, and implications for the paleoenvironment at Woranso-Mille are also discussed.
AB - A large series of fossil cercopithecids has been recovered from the hominid-bearing Woranso-Mille site, Afar State, northeastern Ethiopia. Here we report the taxonomy of those specimens from the Am-Ado, Aralee Issie, Korsi Dora, Makah Mera, and Mesgid Dora collection areas, which are all roughly contemporaneous and dated to between 3.6 and 3.8 million years ago. This series includes a minimum of two cercopithecine and three colobine species. Theropithecus oswaldi cf. darti is by far the most common species in the assemblage, making up over 90% of identifiable cercopithecid specimens. There is also at least one other species of papionin, which cannot be currently assigned to a genus. The colobines are here allocated to Cercopithecoides cf. meaveae and two other species, one small and one large, that cannot be currently assigned to genus.The T.oswaldi cf. darti series from Woranso-Mille is both the earliest and largest identified to date. It documents the earliest occurrence of the T.oswaldi lineage and strongly suggests that parallel evolution of molar morphology has occurred within the genus between T.oswaldi and Theropithecus brumpti. Given the dominance of monkeys at Woranso-Mille, and the preponderance of Theropithecus among cercopithecids, T.o. cf. darti is likely to be the most common mammal present at the 3.6-3.8 million-years-old localities of the Woranso-Mille study area. Some explanations for this unusual occurrence are explored, and implications for the paleoenvironment at Woranso-Mille are also discussed.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.05.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 24906795
AN - SCOPUS:84927693993
VL - 76
SP - 39
EP - 53
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
SN - 0047-2484
IS - C
ER -