Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T22:48:30.311Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - A second view from Europe

from Part III - Review of fossil apes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2016

Peter Andrews
Peter Andrews
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, London
Get access

Summary

During the second half of the middle Miocene and extending into the late Miocene, there was a proliferation of fossil apes in Europe and Asia, postdating the early arrivals described in Chapters 9 and 10 by several million years. There are also a small number of genera and species known in Africa, as mentioned in Chapter 4, and they will be discussed again later, but here I am going to describe the place of the dryopithecines in human ancestry. The genus Dryopithecus has passed through several stages in its history, from the time when it included almost all known fossil apes, after the 1965 revision by Elwyn Simons and David Pilbeam, to the later part of the twentieth century when almost everything except Dryopithecus itself had been removed. The Dryopithecinae now is split into six genera and species, one species to each genus (Table 4.3). This situation will certainly change in the future, with some of the species and genera perhaps being combined and new ones found. For the purposes of this book, I have retained the names currently in use, but to avoid overloading the reader with too many names I will be using mainly the genus names.

No monographic treatment has yet been attempted on the dryopithecines, although Johannes Hürzeler was planning to prepare a monograph on European dryopithecines similar to his one on pliopithecids. At the time when I was touring Europe examining and measuring fossil apes, Hürzeler had collected most of the known dryopithecine fossils at his office in Basel, and he was most generous in sharing the specimens and his thoughts about them with me. Meeting him was one of the highlights of my European tour, but it was frustrating that his work was not completed at the time of his death. My descriptions of dryopithecine morphology has followed his methodology, as has all my taxonomic work on fossil apes, and it is a tribute to him and his far-sighted approach that, at a time when most anthropologists concentrated on naming new species (as they still do today), he was attempting to synthesize and analyse all that was available in the fossil record. In this chapter, I will concentrate on the species with the best-preserved specimens, Hispanopithecus laietanus from Spain.

Type
Chapter
Information
An Ape's View of Human Evolution , pp. 184 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agustí, J., Köhler, M., Moyà-Solà, S., Cabrera, L., Garcés, M. & Parés, J.M. 1996. Can Lobateres: the pattern and timing of the Vallesian hominoid radiation reconsidered. Journal of Human Evolution 31, 143–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alba, D.M. 2012. Fossil apes from the Vallès-Penedès. Evolutionary Anthropology 21, 254–269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alba, D.M., Fortuny, J. & Moyà-Solà, S. 2010. Enamel thickness in the middle Miocene great apes Anoiapithecus, Pierolapithecus andDryopithecus. Proceedings of the Royal Society 277, 2237–2245.Google Scholar
Alba, D.M., Fortuny, J., Perez de los Rios, M. et al. 2010. New dental remains of Anoiapithecus and the first appearance datum of hominoids in the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Human Evolution 65, 573–584.Google Scholar
Almécija, S., Alba, D.M., Moyà-Solà, S. & Köhler, M. 2007. Orang-like manusal adaptations in the fossil hominoid Hispanopithecus laietanus: first steps towards great ape suspensory behaviours. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274, 2375–2384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Almécija, S., Alba, D.M. & Moyà-Solà, S. 2009. Pierolapithecus and the functional morphology of Miocene ape hand phalanges: paleobiological and evolutionary implications. Journal of Human Evolution 57, 284–297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begun, D.R. 1992. Miocene fossil hominids and the chimp-human clade. Science 257, 1929–1933.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begun, D.R. 1992. Phyletic diversity and locomotion in primitive European hominids. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87, 311–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begun, D.R. 1993. New catarrhine phalanges from Rudabánya (Northeastern Hungary) and the problem of parallelism and convergence in hominoid postcranial morphology. Journal of Human Evolution 24, 373–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begun, D.R. 1994. Relations among the great apes and humans: new interpretations based on the fossil great apeDryopithecus. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 37, 11–63.Google Scholar
Begun, D.R. 2000. Middle Miocene hominoid origins. Science 287, 31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begun, D.R. 2002. European hominoids. In Hartig, W.C, Editor, The Primate Fossil Record, 339–368. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Begun, D.R. 2004. The earliest hominins – is less more?Science 303, 1478–1480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begun, D.R. 2009. Dryopithecins, Darwin, de bonis and the European origin of the African apes and human clade. Geodiversitas 31, 789–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begun, D.R. & Kordos, L. 1993. Revision of Dryopithecus brancoi Schlosser, 1910, based on the fossil hominid material from Rudabanya. Journal of Human Evolution 25, 271–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begun, D.R., Moyá-Sola, S. & Köhler, M. 1990. New Miocene hominoid specimens from Can Llobateres (Valles Penedes, Spain) and their geological and paleoecological context. Journal of Human Evolution 9, 255–268.Google Scholar
Begun, D.R., Nargolwalla, M.C. & Kordos, L. 2012 European Miocene hominids and the origin of the African ape and human clade. Evolutionary Anthropology 21, 10–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernor, R.L., Armour-Chelu, M., Kaiser, T.M. & Scott, R.S. 2003. An evaluation of the late MN9 (late Miocene, Vallesian age) Hipparion assemblage from Rudabánya (Hungary): systematic background, functional anatomy, paleoecology. Colloquios de Palaeontología Volumen Extraordinario 1, 35–45.Google Scholar
Crusafont-Pairó, M. 1978. El Gabón fosil (Pliopithecus) del Vindobonense terminal del Vallès. Paleontologia y Evolución 13, 11–12.Google Scholar
Crusafont-Pairó, M. & Golpe-Posse, J.M. 1981. Estudio de la denticion inferior del primer Pliopithécido hallado en España (Vindobonensis terminal de Castell de Barbera, Cataluña, España). Bolletin de Informaciones de la Institut de Palentologia, Sabadell 13, 25–38.Google Scholar
Crusafont-Pairó, M. & Hürzeler, J. 1961. Les pongidés fossilles d'Espagne. Comptes Rendus bebdomadaires d l'Academie des Sciences Paris 254, 582–584.Google Scholar
Hammond, A.S., Alba, D.M., Almécija, S. & Moyà-Solà, S. 2013. Middle Miocene Pierolapithecus provides a first glimpse into early hominid pelvic morphology. Journal of Human Evolution 64, 658–666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, T. 1987. A reassessment of the phylogenetic relationships of Oreopithecus bambolii Gervais. Journal of Human Evolution 15, 541–583.Google Scholar
Harrison, T. 1991. The implications of Oreopithecus for the origins of bipedalism. In Coppens, Y. & Senut, B., Editors, Origine(s) de la Bipédie Chez les Hominidés, 235–244. Paris, Cahiers de Paléoanthropologie, CNRS.Google Scholar
Harrison, T.S. & Harrison, T. 1989. Palynology of the late Miocene Oreopithecus-bearing lignite from Baccinello, Italy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 76, 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, T. & Rook, L. 1997. Enigmatic anthropoid or misunderstood ape? The phylogenetic status of Oreopithecus bambolii reconsidered. In Begun, D.R., Ward, C.V. & Rose, M.D., Editors, Function, Phylogeny, and Fossils: Miocene Hominoid Evolution and Adaptations, 327–362. New York, Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Hartwig, W.C. (Editor) 2002. The Primate Fossil Record. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kivell, T.L. & Begun, D.R. 2009. New primate carpal bones from Rudabánya (late Miocene, Hungary): taxonomic and functional implications. Journal of Human Evolution 57, 697–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Köhler, M., Moyà-Solà, S. & Andrews, P. 1999. Order Primates. In Rossner, G. & Heissig, K., Editors, Land Mammals of Europe, 91–104. Munich, Verlag Fridrich Pfeil.Google Scholar
Kordos, L. 1985. Environmental reconstruction for prehominids of Rudabànya, NE Hungary. Akademie der Wissenschaftern der DDR Zentralinstitut fur alte Geschichte und Archaologie 41, 82–85.Google Scholar
Kordos, L. 1991. Le Rudapithecus hungaricus de Rudabànya (Hongrie). L'Anthropologie 95, 343–362.Google Scholar
Kordos, L. & Begun, D.R. 1997. A new reconstruction of RUD 77, a partial cranium of Dryopithecus brancoi from Rudabánya, Hungary. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 103, 277–294.3.0.CO;2-Y>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kretzoi, M. 1975. New ramapithecines and Pliopithecus from the lower Pliocene of Rudabànya in northeastern Hungary. Nature 257, 578–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morbeck, M.E. 1983. Miocene hominoid discoveries from Rudabánya: implications from the postcranial skeleton. In Ciochon, R.L. & Corruccini, R.S., Editors, New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry, 369–404. New York, Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S., Alba, D.M., Almecija, S. et al. 2009a. A unique middle Miocene European hominoid and the origins of the great ape and human clade. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moyà-Solà, S. & Köhler, M. 1993. Recent discoveries of Dryopithecus shed new light on evolution of great apes. Nature 365, 543–545.Google Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S. & Köhler, M. 1995. New partial cranium of Dryopithecus Lartet, 1863 (Hominoidea, Primates) from the upper Miocene of Can Llobateres, Barcelona, Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 29, 101–139.Google Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S. & Köhler, M. 1996. The first Dryopithecus skeleton: origins of great ape locomotion. Nature 379, 156–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S. & Köhler, M. 1997. The phylogenetic relationships of Oreopithecus bambolii Gervais, 1872. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 324, 141–148.Google Scholar
Moyà-Solà, S., Köhler, M., Alba, D.M., Casanovas-Vilar, I. & Galindo, J. 2004. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, a new middle Miocene great ape from Spain. Science 306, 1339–1344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moyà-Solà, S., Köhler, M., Alba, D.M. et al. 2009b. First partial face and upper dentition of the middle Miocene hominoid Dryopithecus fontani from Abocador de Can Mata (Valles-Penedes Basin, Catalonia, NE Spain): taxonomic and phylogenetic implications. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139, 126–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moyà-Solà, S., Köhler, M. & Rook, L. 1999. Evidence of hominid-like precision grip capability in the hand of the Miocene ape Oreopithecus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96, 313–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pérez de los Ríos, M., Moyà-Solà, S. & Alba, D.M. 2012. The nasal and parnasal architecture of the middle Miocene ape Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (Primates: Hominidae): phylogenetic implications. Journal of Human Evolution 63, 497–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilbeam, D.R. & Simons, E.L. 1971. Humerus of Dryopithecus from Saint Gaudens, France. Nature 229, 406–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skinner, M.F., Dupras, T.L. & Moyà-Solà, S. 1995. Periodicity of linear enamel hypoplasia among Miocene Dryopithecus from Spain. Journal of Paleopathology 7, 195–222.Google Scholar
Smith-Woodward, A. 1914. On the lower jaw of an anthropoid ape (Dryopithecus) from the upper Miocene of Lerida, Spain. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 70, 316–320.Google Scholar
Tallman, M., Almecija, S., Reber, S.L., Alba, D.M. & Moyà-Solà, S. 2013. The distal tibia of Hispanopithecus laietanus: more evidence for mosaic evolution in Miocene apes. Journal of Human Evolution 64, 319–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Villalta, J.F. & Crusafont, M. 1964. Dos nuevos antropomorfos de Mioceno español y su situación de la moderno sistemática de los simidos. Notas de Comision de investigationes geologicas mineralogicas 13, 91–139.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • A second view from Europe
  • Peter Andrews, Natural History Museum, London
  • Book: An Ape's View of Human Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316180938.013
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • A second view from Europe
  • Peter Andrews, Natural History Museum, London
  • Book: An Ape's View of Human Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316180938.013
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A second view from Europe
  • Peter Andrews, Natural History Museum, London
  • Book: An Ape's View of Human Evolution
  • Online publication: 05 January 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316180938.013
Available formats
×