Um novo grande macaco do Mioceno inferior e suas implicações para as origens dos grandes macacos africanos e os humanos

A new Late Miocene great ape from Kenya and its implications for the origins of African great apes and humans

Yutaka Kunimatsua,b, Masato Nakatsukasac, Yoshihiro Sawadad, Tetsuya Sakaid, Masayuki Hyodoe, Hironobu Hyodof, Tetsumaru Itayaf, Hideo Nakayag, Haruo Saegusah, Arnaud Mazurieri, Mototaka Saneyoshij, Hiroshi Tsujikawak, Ayumi Yamamotoa, and Emma Mbual

+ Author Affiliations

aPrimate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Aichi 484-8506, Japan;

cGraduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan;

dFaculty of Science and Engineering, Shimane University, Shimane 690-8504, Japan;

eResearch Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan;

fResearch Institute of Natural Sciences, Okayama University of Science, Okayama 700-0005, Japan;

gFaculty of Science, Kagoshima University, Korimoto 1-21-35, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan;

hInstitute of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Hyogo, Sanda 669-1546, Japan;

iÉtudes Recherches Matériaux, 86022 Poitiers, France;

jHayashibara Natural History Museum, Okayama 700-0907, Japan;

kSchool of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8575, Japan; and

lDepartment of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

Edited by Alan Walker, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and approved October 3, 2007 (received for review July 1, 2007)

Abstract

Extant African great apes and humans are thought to have diverged from each other in the Late Miocene. However, few hominoid fossils are known from Africa during this period. Here we describe a new genus of great ape (Nakalipithecus nakayamai gen. et sp. nov.) recently discovered from the early Late Miocene of Nakali, Kenya. The new genus resembles Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (9.6–8.7 Ma, Greece) in size and some features but retains less specialized characters, such as less inflated cusps and better-developed cingula on cheek teeth, and it was recovered from a slightly older age (9.9–9.8 Ma). Although the affinity of Ouranopithecus to the extant African apes and humans has often been inferred, the former is known only from southeastern Europe. The discovery of N. nakayamai in East Africa, therefore, provides new evidence on the origins of African great apes and humans. N. nakayamai could be close to the last common ancestor of the extant African apes and humans. In addition, the associated primate fauna from Nakali shows that hominoids and other non-cercopithecoid catarrhines retained higher diversity into the early Late Miocene in East Africa than previously recognized.

hominoid evolution

Footnotes

bTo whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kunimats@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Author contributions: Y.K., M.N., Y.S., and E.M. designed research; Y.K., M.N., Y.S., T.S., M.H., H.H., T.I., H.N., A.M., M.S., H.T., and A.Y. performed research; Y.K., Y.S., T.S., M.H., H.H., T.I., H.N., H.S., A.M., M.S., H.T., and A.Y. analyzed data; and Y.K., M.N., Y.S., and H.N. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0706190104/DC1.

© 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

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