Nature Vol. 287 25 September 1980 273 Snakeblennies from Alwyne Wheeler The snakeblennies (fishes of the tribe Ophiclinini within the family Clinidae) are small (up to 16 cm long) and live in shallow water along the cool, southern coasts of Australia. They can be captured in tidal rock pools and in bays at depths of 13 m and several are known to burrow in mud. A recent taxonomic study by George and Springer• has made a considerable contribution to our knowledge of these fishes, not least because they name no fewer than five previously undescribed species. They have also revised all the previously named species and produced a clarification of the relationships of these little-known fishes. Thus, the species Peronedys anguillaris which was Ophiclinops hutchinsi, new species (89.0 mm); Ophiclinus pectoralis, new species (52.0 mm); previously assigned to a family on its Ophiclinus gracilis (68 .0 mm). Drawings by J .R. Schroeder. own, and the Sticharium which hitherto had been placed in the are placed in a tribe Ophiclinini within the fins, including the newly described Notograptidae, are now combined with Clinidae. Ophiclinops hutchinsi from Western the Ophiclinidae. These fishes are not, One of the pieces of evidence which Australia. however, considered to be distinct from substantiates the close relationship of • Anita George & Victor G. Springer: Revision of the clinid fish the members of the family Clinidae, Peronedys (which was thought to be tribe Ophiclinini , including five new species, and definition of 1he family Clinidac. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology which are widely distributed through the distinguished by having no pectoral fins) 307 (Smithsonian Institut ion Press, City of Washington, 1980). tropical and subtropical oceans. For this is that several of the species of Alwyne Wheeler works on fishes at the British reason, these southern Australian fishes Ophiclinops have very minute pectoral Museum (Natural History), London. and the evolution of higher from R. D. Marlin IN this issue of Nature Fleagle et al. report was not until 1977 that a new programme trial at that stage. Conversely, that three species of from of joint expeditions was organised by the reconstructions of continental positions deposits at the Fayum site show Geological Survey of Egypt and Duke indicate that invasion of South America evidence of sexual dimorphism. This University. The new initiative has yielded from North America would have been at discovery has important implications for our additional material throwing new light on least equally unlikely during the Oligocene. understanding of the radiation of monkeys, the early evolution of the higher primates. In all of this, the Fayum primates occupy and man as well as enabling us guess Interpretation of the initial radiation of a central position as the earliest relevant something of the social structure of the the monkeys, apes and man has been . Interestingly, they do show nume­ earliest known Old World anthropoids. thrown into turmoil by new information on rous cranial and postcranial similarities to The Fayum fossil site in the Egyptian continental drift. The traditional view, modern New World monkeys, but this is desert south-west of Cairo is of special assuming stable continental positions is compatible with either or significance for the reconstruction of that the New World monkeys (platyrrhine) origins since the similarities concern primate evolution. Vertebrate fossils from and the Old World monkeys and apes primitive features only to be expected in these Oligocene deposits, dating back some (catarrhines) are two quite distinct early representative5 of the grade. It 30 million years, include the first known branches derived from a prosimian stock is therefore crucial to determine whether representatives of the 'higher' primates spanning the northern continents. The the Fayum primates exhibit specializations (monkeys, apes and man). In fact, in the platyrrhines and catarrhines are held to specifically linking them to Old World entire African continent, fossil primates have attained the 'simian grade' indepen­ monkeys and apes. On the basis of previous from this site provide the only undisputed dently through parallel evolution. The evidence, Simons and his colleagues has palaeontological evidence of primate acceptance of continental drift has, how­ already suggested this to be the case. evolution for the first half of the Tertiary ever, generated increasing support for the Indeed, Simons proposed that the fossils (Palaeocene--Oligocene). alternative view that the platyrrhines and could be divided into two groups (Apidium The first fragmentary jaws and teeth of catarrhines shared a common ancestor in and Parapithecus vs O/igopithecus, Fayum primates were recorded about 75 Africa which had already attained the and ) years ago and a series of collecting simian grade. Opponents of this inter­ related to the origins of the Old World expeditions led by Elwyn Simons (then of pretation point out that the first fossil monkeys and apes, respectively. Yale University) in 1963-1967 produced a evidence for New World monkeys appears The new primate fossil material from the wealth of fossil material from five primate only in the late Oligocene and that the Fayum deposits has produced no great genera (Apidium; Parapithecus; Oligopi­ South Atlantic undoubtedly represented a surprises in taxonomic terms; all of the new t hecus; Propliopithecus; Aegyptopi­ formidable barrier to invasion by terres­ specimens can be confidently allocated to thecus). But soon afterwards events in the R . D. Marlin is Reader in Physical four of the five existing genera (Apidium; Middle East led to suspension of all Anthropology, University College, London and Parapithecus; Propliopithecus; Aegyp­ palaeontological work in the Fayum, and it Visiting Professor in Zoology at Birkbeck topithecus). But the increased sample sizes College, London.

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