New Cercopithecoids And A Hominoid From 12 Center Dot 5 Ma In The Tugen Hills Succession, Kenya
Anthropology; calibration; Cercopithecoidea; Evolutionary Biology; forest; fort-ternan; Hominoidea; kenya; maboko island; middle miocene; Miocene; Ngorora; ngorora formation; old-world monkey; origins; site; Tugen Hills; victoriapithecus
Hill A; Leakey M; Kingston J D; Ward S
Journal of Human Evolution
2002
2002-01
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0518" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1006/jhev.2001.0518</a>
Dental Remains Of Equatorius Africanus From Kipsaramon, Tugen Hills, Baringo District, Kenya
Anthropology; baringo; dentition; Equatorius; evolution; Evolutionary Biology; hominoid genus; hominoids; kenyapithecus; Kipsaramon; middle miocene; Miocene; Muruyur; pasalar; sexual dimorphism; western kenya
Forty-one isolated large hominoid teeth, as well as most of the mandibular and three maxillary teeth associated with a partial skeleton, were recovered from middle Miocene Muruyur sediments near Kipsaramon in the Tugen Hills, Baringo District, Kenya. The isolated teeth were collected as surface finds and the skeleton was excavated in situ at locality BPRP#122 dated between 15(.)58 Ma and 15(.)36 Ma. The majority of the teeth recovered at BPRP#122 are referable to a minimum of five individuals of the hominoid Equatorius africanus. Three of the teeth, however, are provisionally assigned to Nyanzapithecus sp. The new hominoids from Kipsaramon add to an increasing inventory of specimens that suggest greater large hominoid taxonomic diversity from the middle Miocene of Kenya than was previously recognized. It is suggested that there are two large-bodied hominoid species present at Mabako, only one of which is assignable to Equatorius. (C) 2002 Academic Press.
Kelley J; Ward S; Brown B; Hill A; Duren D L
Journal of Human Evolution
2002
2002-01
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0504" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1006/jhev.2001.0504</a>
Subnasoalveolar anatomy and hominoid phylogeny: Evidence from comparative ontogeny
Anthropology; Evolutionary Biology; evolution; allometry; great apes; miocene; form; sexual dimorphism; extant; fossil hominids; Homo; late; african apes; facial kyphosis; character phylogeny; chimp; hylobatids; ontogenetic; orangutans; skull material; subnasal development
The present analysis evaluated extant hominoid subnasal morphological variation from an ontogenetic perspective, documenting both qualitative and allometric details of subnasal maturation in Hylobates, great apes and modern humans. With respect to intraspecific variation, results of log-linear modeling procedures indicate that qualitative features of the subnasal region shown previously to discriminate extant taxa (Ward and Kimbel, 1983; McCollum et al., 1993) do not vary appreciably with either age or sex. In terms of quantitative variation, aside from observed changes in the position of the anterior attachment of the nasal septal cartilage relative to the lateral margins of the nasal cavity, the morphology of the subnasal region does not vary appreciably with age. Furthermore, it was found that sexual dimorphism in subnasal form is present only in Pongo and Gorilla and is the result of sexual bimaturism rather than sexual variation in canine size. In considering interspecific variation in subnasal form, there is a propensity among hominoid taxa for the nasal cavity floor to be free of substantial topographic relief. The smoothly continuous nasal floor topography identified in the majority of hominoid taxa appears to be produced by extensive resorption of the anterior nasal cavity floor that accompanies an upward rotation of the anterior maxilla during craniofacial ontogeny. Comparisons of ontogenetic allometric trajectories indicate that relatively little of the variation in hominoid subnasal form can easily be attributed to variation in body/cranial size. Instead, variation in craniofacial orientation, vascular anatomy and incisor size and inclination were identified as potential mediators of hominoid subnasoalveolar anatomy. Although results of this analysis confirm that many details of the orangutan subnasal morphology are derived for this taxon, there is little conclusive evidence to support recent reports that the morphology displayed by Gorilla is primitive for great apes (Begun, 1992, 1994). (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
McCollum M A; Ward S C
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
1997
1997-03
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199703)102:3%3C377::aid-ajpa7%3E3.0.co;2-s" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199703)102:3%3C377::aid-ajpa7%3E3.0.co;2-s</a>
Miocene stratigraphy and mammal fauna from the Sulaiman Range, Southwestern Himalayas, Pakistan
biochronology; deposits; Geology; Himalayan tectonics; miocene; Paleontology; Physical Geography; sedimentation; Siwaliks; Siwaliks; Sulaiman Range; tectonic implications
The thick (> 4000 m) coarsening-upward terrestrial Neogene sequence of the Sulaiman Range (Middle Indus Basin, central Pakistan) is the western extension of the Siwalik outcrop belt of the Sub-Himalayas. The near-shore to terrestrial sedimentation in the Sulaiman Range, represented by the Chitarwata Formation, began by the late Oligocene to basal Miocene when the main Himalayan foreland was primarily a non-depositional region. The fluvial system of channel-floodplain deposits was fully established in the late early Miocene, marking the beginning of the Vihowa Formation. There is a sudden increase in the proportion of sandstones to mudstones, and change in the geometry of the sandbodies, at the conformable contact of the Vihowa with the overlying Litra Formation. The trend of coarsening and increased complexity of sandbodies with more conglomerate interbeds continued upward from the Litra to the Chaudhwan Formation, which in the upper reaches becomes a conglomerate-dominant sequence. Our mammalian faunal collections from the Vihowa and Litra formations, though small, are definitive, providing a temporal framework for interpreting the Sulaiman depositional regimes in the context of Himalayan orogeny. The Vihowa and Litra mammalian faunas are strikingly similar to the Middle to Late Miocene Siwalik faunas from the Potwar Plateau. Fauna from the lower Vihowa records diversification in the small boselaphine bovid Eotragus around 17 Ma. The three-toed hipparionine horses appear in the lower Litra Formation, giving a Late Miocene age to those strata. The middle Litra Formation has entirely different species of bovids, suids, and giraffids suggesting a more open country habitat. Similar community restructuring with substantial faunal turnover occurred about 7.5-7.0 Ma on the Potwar Plateau. The Chaudhwan Formation is probably of Pliocene age. Paleocurrent data suggest a southerly flowing river system, which perhaps was part of a much larger river system, analogous to the modern Indus River, draining southwestern Himalayas since Miocene. The Chitarwata through Chaudhwan sequence in the Sulaiman Range contains an almost continuous terrestrial record of the Neogene, perhaps more complete than anywhere else in the Himalayan foreland. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Raza S M; Cheema I U; Downs W R; Rajpar A R; Ward S C
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology
2002
2002-10
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-0182(02)00443-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/s0031-0182(02)00443-1</a>
A new Miocene sirenian from Kutch, India
eocene; India; kachchh; mammalia; mammalia; miocene; Paleontology; Sirenia
We report a new Miocene sirenian from District Kutch, State of Gujarat, India: Domingia sodhae gen. et sp. nov. The new species is a dugongine dugongid with flattened tusk-like upper incisors. Like some other Miocene dugongids, Domningia is large and has complex, bilophodont molars and three-rooted premolars, which are strongly worn. The rostrum is downturned significantly, similar to modern dugongs, and indicative of a specialized feeding mode. Phylogenetically, it is closely related to Dioplotherium, Rytiodus, Corystosiren, and Bharatisiren. Among these, Domningia is most similar to Bharatisiren indica and Dioplotherium manigaulti, in that all three taxa retain multi-rooted premolars. Similar to Bharatisiren, the nasal process of the premaxilla is long. Bharatisiren and Domningia are part of a late Oligocene and early Miocene radiation of dugongines in South Asia.
Thewissen J G M; Bajpai S
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
2009
2009-03
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.4202/app.2009.0102" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.4202/app.2009.0102</a>
EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE ROBUST AUSTRALOPITHECINES - GRINE,FE
Anthropology; boisei; brain; east-africa; Evolutionary Biology; growth; hominids; Homo; Kenya; miocene; neogene
Ward S C
Journal of Human Evolution
1991
1991-12
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(91)90097-f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/0047-2484(91)90097-f</a>