< This research was carried out by a team of French
researchers from the Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution (Université
de Montpellier/CNRS), working with Algerian paleontologists from the
universities of Tlemcen, Oran and Jijel. The resulting publication,
published online on the website of the Proceedings of the Royal Society
B (Biological Sciences) on September 9, 2009, reopens the debate on the
African origin of anthropoids, the group to which humans and apes
belong. (Now-extinct primate; Credit: Ryan Somma) In 1992, fossilized remains of the small primate
Algeripithecus were discovered in the Algerian Sahara. Fifty million
years old, weighing just 75 g and known to paleontologists thanks to
the remains of two molars, this primate was considered to be the most
ancient anthropoid of the African continent. The discovery of
Algeripithecus was thus a major contribution to the hypothesis under
which Africa was the cradle of anthropoid primates, a group to which
humans and apes all belong. The existence of another primate, the
Azibius, has been known for longer. This is one of the most ancient
African representatives of the crown strepsirhines, another primate
group that today is represented by the lemurs of Madagascar, the
galagos of Central Africa and the loris of Southern Asia. At the
Glib Zegdou site in north-eastern Algeria, a French team from the
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution in Montpellier (Université de
Montpellier/CNRS), working in collaboration with Algerian scientists,
recently exhumed cranial and dental fragments from both Algeripithecus
and Azibius. They included some nearly complete mandibles. These
remains displayed a certain number of traits typical of the crown
strepsirhines, notably an adaptation to nocturnal activity and the
putative presence of a "toothcomb" [1] in the lower toothrow. The
paleontologists concluded that Algeripithecus, like its close relative
Azibius, did not in fact belong to the family of anthropoid primates
but was very probably one of the most ancient representatives in Africa
of the crown strepsirhines. In Egypt, the presence of more than
a dozen fossilized anthropoid primates dating from 30 to 38 million
years ago had long been known. This recent Franco-Algerian discovery
thus advances the first true appearance of anthropoid primates on the
African continent by more than 15 million years. With its major
consequences on the evolutionary history of African anthropoid
primates, this observation further strengthens the alternative
hypothesis of an Asiatic origin for anthropoids. Furthermore, this
paleontologic research reveals a hitherto unsuspected diversity and
great antiquity of the first crown strepsirhines in Africa.>>
Tags: Animals
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