The earliest hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China
Xueping Jiab cs 2022 JHE 171, 103251
doi org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103251

Yuanmoupith.xiaoyuan (small catarrhine, Yunnan. S-China) was initially suggested to be related to Miocene proconsuloids or dendropithecoids (E.Africa),
but subsequent reports indicated: was it more closely related to hylobatids?

Here, detailed comparisons of the material (7 newly discovered teeth & a partial lower face of a juvenile individual) provide crucial evidence to its phylogenetic relationships.
It exhibits a suite of synapomorphies that support a close phylogenetic relationship with extant hylobatids.
Based on the retention of several primitive features of the dentition, it can be shown to be the sister-taxon of crown-hylobatids.

The contention that Kapi ramnagarensis (mid-Miocene, India) might represent an earlier species of hylobatid is not supported here.
Instead, Kapi is inferred to be a specialized pliopithecoid, more closely related to Krishnapith.krishnaii (late-Miocene, India).

Yuanmoupithecus represents the earliest known definitively identified hylobatid, the only member of the clade pre-dating the Pleistocene.
It extends the fossil record of hylobatids back to 7–8 Ma, and fills a critical gap in hominoid evol.history, that has up until now remained elusive.

Molecular estimates of a divergence date hylobatids / other hominoids c 17–22 Ma signifies:
there is still a fossil gap >10 My, that needs to be filled to document hylobatid bio-geographic origins & early evolution

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, September 19, 2022 at 12:29:04 AM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:

The earliest hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China
Xueping Jiab cs 2022 JHE 171, 103251
doi org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103251

Yuanmoupith.xiaoyuan (small catarrhine, Yunnan. S-China) was initially suggested to be related to Miocene proconsuloids or dendropithecoids (E.Africa),
but subsequent reports indicated: was it more closely related to hylobatids?

Here, detailed comparisons of the material (7 newly discovered teeth & a partial lower face of a juvenile individual) provide crucial evidence to its phylogenetic relationships.
It exhibits a suite of synapomorphies that support a close phylogenetic relationship with extant hylobatids.
Based on the retention of several primitive features of the dentition, it can be shown to be the sister-taxon of crown-hylobatids.

The contention that Kapi ramnagarensis (mid-Miocene, India) might represent an earlier species of hylobatid is not supported here.
Instead, Kapi is inferred to be a specialized pliopithecoid, more closely related to Krishnapith.krishnaii (late-Miocene, India).

Yuanmoupithecus represents the earliest known definitively identified hylobatid, the only member of the clade pre-dating the Pleistocene.
It extends the fossil record of hylobatids back to 7–8 Ma, and fills a critical gap in hominoid evol.history, that has up until now remained elusive.

Molecular estimates of a divergence date hylobatids / other hominoids c 17–22 Ma signifies:
there is still a fossil gap >10 My, that needs to be filled to document hylobatid bio-geographic origins & early evolution

---

8ma gibbon not larger than today's gibbons, despite long estivationhttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964570

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964570

The work, reported in the Journal of Human Evolution, centers on hylobatids, a family of apes that includes 20 species of living gibbons, which are found throughout tropical Asia from northeastern India to Indonesia.

“Hylobatids fossil remains are very rare, and most specimens are isolated teeth and fragmentary jaw bones found in cave sites in southern China and southeast Asia dating back no more than 2 million years ago,” explains Terry Harrison, a professor of
anthropology at New York University and one of the paper’s authors. “This new find extends the fossil record of hylobatids back to 7 to 8 million years ago and, more specifically, enhances our understanding of the evolution of this family of apes.”

The fossil, discovered in the Yuanmou area of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, is of a small ape called Yua

On Monday, September 19, 2022 at 2:07:33 AM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:

On Monday, September 19, 2022 at 12:29:04 AM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:

The earliest hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China
Xueping Jiab cs 2022 JHE 171, 103251
doi org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103251

Yuanmoupith.xiaoyuan (small catarrhine, Yunnan. S-China) was initially suggested to be related to Miocene proconsuloids or dendropithecoids (E.Africa),
but subsequent reports indicated: was it more closely related to hylobatids?

Here, detailed comparisons of the material (7 newly discovered teeth & a partial lower face of a juvenile individual) provide crucial evidence to its phylogenetic relationships.
It exhibits a suite of synapomorphies that support a close phylogenetic relationship with extant hylobatids.
Based on the retention of several primitive features of the dentition, it can be shown to be the sister-taxon of crown-hylobatids.

The contention that Kapi ramnagarensis (mid-Miocene, India) might represent an earlier species of hylobatid is not supported here.
Instead, Kapi is inferred to be a specialized pliopithecoid, more closely related to Krishnapith.krishnaii (late-Miocene, India).

Yuanmoupithecus represents the earliest known definitively identified hylobatid, the only member of the clade pre-dating the Pleistocene.
It extends the fossil record of hylobatids back to 7–8 Ma, and fills a critical gap in hominoid evol.history, that has up until now remained elusive.

Molecular estimates of a divergence date hylobatids / other hominoids c 17–22 Ma signifies:
there is still a fossil gap >10 My, that needs to be filled to document hylobatid bio-geographic origins & early evolution

---

8ma gibbon not larger than today's gibbons, despite long estivationhttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964570

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964570

The work, reported in the Journal of Human Evolution, centers on hylobatids, a family of apes that includes 20 species of living gibbons, which are found throughout tropical Asia from northeastern India to Indonesia.

“Hylobatids fossil remains are very rare, and most specimens are isolated teeth and fragmentary jaw bones found in cave sites in southern China and southeast Asia dating back no more than 2 million years ago,” explains Terry Harrison, a professor

of anthropology at New York University and one of the paper’s authors. “This new find extends the fossil record of hylobatids back to 7 to 8 million years ago and, more specifically, enhances our understanding of the evolution of this family of apes.�
��

The fossil, discovered in the Yuanmou area of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, is of a small ape called Yuanmoupithecus xiaoyuan. The analysis, which included Xueping Ji of the Kunming Institute of Zoology and the lead author of the study,

focused on the teeth and cranial specimens of Yuanmoupithecus, including an upper jaw of an infant that was less than 2 years old when it died.

Using the size of the molar teeth as a guide, the scientists estimate that Yuanmoupithecus was similar in size to today’s gibbons, with a body weight of about 6 kilograms—or about 13 pounds.

“The teeth and the lower face of Yuanmoupithecus are very similar to those of modern-day gibbons, but in a few features the fossil species was more primitive and points to it being the ancestor of all the living species,” observes Harrison, part of

NYU’s Center for the Study of Human Origins.

Images of Yuanmoupithecus’ upper jaw and one of the excavation sites may be downloaded from Google Drive.

Ji found the infant upper jaw during his field survey and identified it as a hylobatid by comparing it with modern gibbon skulls in the Kunming Institute of Zoology

The upper jaw quadrant was found. If the lower jaw had been found, a chin (as occurs in some hylobatids) might have been detected. The region in Yunnan may produce more fossil apes.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)