Novos macacos preenchem a lacuna

New apes fill the gap
Raymond L. Bernor*
+ Author Affiliations

Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Howard University, 520 W Street, NW, Washington, DC 20059; and Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program, Geosciences/Earth Sciences, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22230
The relative abundance of Eurasian apes between 12.5 and 8 Ma—in contrast to a dearth of African apes during the same chronologic interval—has led some investigators (1, 2) to suggest that the African ape–human clade evolved from a Eurasian ancestor, specifically, a previously undescribed and unnamed ape from Turkey (3). In the last several weeks, three new ape genera have been reported, one from Turkey (Ouranopithecus turkae), one from Ethiopia (Chororapithecus abyssinicus), and the latest, Nakalipithecus nakayamai, from Kenya, which is the subject of the article by Kunimatsu et al. (4) in a recent issue of PNAS.

Filling the Gap

N. nakayamai is described as a large ape, the size of a female gorilla, dating 9.9–9.8 Ma. Its dentognathic morphology includes thick-enameled molars, a thickened mandibular body, and a low-crowned upper canine that is as broad as it is long. In these features, N. nakayamai most closely resembles the slightly younger 9.6- to 8.7-Ma Greek ape Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (5–7). The Turkish ape, O. turkae, is the youngest, with a biochronological placement of 8.7–7.4 Ma (8). The dental morphology of Nakalipithecus and of the two Ouranopithecus species suggests hard-object frugivory and, together with their large sizes, implies terrestrial foraging for at least a portion of their niche-space.

The apparent 14- to 7-Ma African “ape gap” (9) is now populated not only by …

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*E-mail: rbernor@nsf.gov

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