EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY 24:41–42 (2015) NEWS Westward Ho! for Early Anthropoids etween March 17 and 19, The likely have been an ideal time for dis- quarries, discussed the chronological School for Advanced Research persals from Asia to Africa because of dates of the stratigraphic section, the Bin Santa Fe, New Mexico, the geographical positions of Middle adaptations of the many species, and hosted a short but intense, seminar/ Eastern tectonic blocks and the likeli- the ongoing debates about the phylo- workshop on “The Colonization of hood of high water volume flowing genetic relationships of different Africa by Early Anthropoid Primates.” southwest from large Asian rivers taxa. The seminar, organized by Chris toward Africa in conjunction with pre- Chris Beard (Kansas) reviewed the Beard (Kansas), involved two full and vailing westward currents. evidence of anthropoid evolution in intense days of presentations and dis- Gregoire Metais (Museum National Africa and Asia, then addressed the cussions, followed by a field trip to d’Histoire Naturelle, France) discussed importance of over-water dispersal Paleocene and Eocene localities in the “Potential Role of Turkey as a Bio- in primate evolution. He argued that northern New Mexico’s San Juan geographic Crossroads for Eurasian the phenomenon that is often called Basin. and African Mammals During the “sweepstakes dispersal” is not ran- Africa has been a major center for Paleogene.” Modern Turkey has an dom (and thus should perhaps be the evolution of anthropoid primates intricate geological history. Recent referred to as a special case of filter over at least the last 35 million years. paleontological work by Metais and dispersal). Rather, over-water disper- Most major groups of living anthro- colleagues, as well as earlier research- sal by vegetation rafts is facilitated poids, including platyrrhines, cercopi- ers, indicates a complex paleontologi- by the presence of large rivers and thecoids, hominoids, and hominins, cal record of fossil mammals. The prevailing currents. The ability of almost certainly originated there. fauna found in red beds in many parts primates to be so successful at dis- However, over the past few decades, of the country contains a mix of Afri- persal is increased by such factors as increasing fossil evidence has indi- can, Asian, and Gondwanan taxa with small size, riverine habitat preferen- cated that anthropoids as a group ori- seemingly conflicting faunal and geo- ces, and gregarious behavior. ginated in Asia and subsequently logical ages that could represent any Yaowalak Chaimanee (Poitiers, emigrated to Africa,1–4 despite the time interval between the late Paleo- France, and Thailand) discussed presence of a Tethyan Seaway sepa- cene to the middle Eocene. “Fossil Tarsiers and Tarsier-like Pri- rating the two continents until the Jean-Jacques Jaeger (Poitiers) mates from Asia and Africa.” She Early Miocene. The focus of this offered a real potboiler in his presen- reviewed the history of discovery and seminar was to discuss the nature, tation, “Asian Origins of Anthropoid the biogeography of tarsier-like pri- number, and timing of possible over- Primates,” in which he suggested mates in both Asia and Africa, water dispersals by early anthropoids that at least six clades of fossil pri- including the recently described Hes- from Asia to Africa and the relative mates found in Africa or Europe perotarsius from Pakistan. She also ages of early anthropoid fossils from have separate Asian origins. These noted potential problems with the Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. include the anthropoid groups para- nomenclature of fossil tarsiers, often In the initial presentation, Alexis pithecids, oligopithecids, propliopi- placed in the genus Tarsius, in light Licht (Kansas) set the stage with a pre- thecids, and pliopithecids. In his of the recent recognition of three dis- sentationon“GeologicalandPaleocli- view, Asia is also the likely source of tinct genera of living tarsiers. In her matic Background for Anthropoid several groups of strepsirrhines. He view, Afrotarsius from the Fayum of Dispersal.” Drawing on his recent pub- argued that all current cladograms Egypt is quite distinct from living lication on Asian monsoons,5 he dis- of anthropoid evolution are wrong tarsiers and other fossil tarsiers and cussed the paleogeography of Africa and that the anthropoid fossil record is, more likely, an early anthropoid. and Eurasia during the Eocene and Oli- of Africa was the result of multiple Laurent Marivaux (Montpellier) gocene and the evidence of climatic colonizations from Asia. provided several posters addressing changes during that time. He argued John Fleagle and Erik Seiffert “The Significance of Eocene Sites in that monsoonal climates were present (Stony Brook) reviewed the rich Algeria and Tunisia for Understand- in Asia during much of the Eocene, but record of fossil anthropoids from the ing the Initial Anthropoid Coloniza- were driven by atmospheric CO2 pres- Fayum of Egypt. They discussed the tion of Africa.” He also discussed the sure rather than by the uplifted Tibetan history of discovery and the strati- newly identified taxon Amamria,as Plateau, which usually is credited with graphic positions of the more than well as Algeripithecus and Djebele- causing the current Asian monsoons. twenty early anthropoid taxa from mur, which are currently identified Licht suggested that the middle Eocene those deposits. They emphasized the as early strepsirrhines. Climatic Optimum (MECO) at approxi- diversity of taphonomic and sedimen- Primates are not the only taxa that mately 41 million years ago would tary characteristics of the different dispersed from Asia to Africa during 42 NEWS a late Eocene or even early Oligocene age more in line with Sallam’s bio- stratigraphic interpretation of the rodents. In a presentation entitled, “Early African Bats and Their Bio- stratigraphic and Biogeographic Implications,” Gregg Gunnell (Duke) provided a fascinating overview of bat biology. He reviewed the global fossil record of bats on different con- tinents through the Cenozoic, described some extraordinary bio- geographic patterns for these flying mammals, and emphasized the role of Gondwanan land masses in the diversification of crown-group bats. Overall, the seminar provided an opportunity for a small group of researchers from many different parts of the world to get together and discuss an exciting, controver- sial, and difficult topic in primate evolution. Together, they focused on identifying ways to move forward Figure 1. Participants in the SAR Seminar on “The Colonization of Africa by Early Anthro- toward a better understanding of pri- poid Primates”. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at mate paleobiogeography. wileyonlinelibrary.com.] the Paleogene. Several presentations taxa from many sites in the Fayum discussed hystricognathous rodents, sequence. In his view, the Libyan REFERENCES a group of Asian origin that is abun- site of Dur at Talah is temporally 1 Beard KC, Wang J. 2004. The eosimiid pri- dant in the African fossil record and equivalent to the Qasr el Sagha For- mates (Anthropoidea) of the Heti Formation, also dispersed from Africa to South mation in the Fayum. Yuanqu Basin, Shanxi and Henan Provinces, People’s Republic of China. J Hum Evol 46: America, where they were even more William Sanders (Michigan) dis- 401–432. successful. Pauline Coster (Kansas) cussed the “Biogeography and Bio- 2 Jaeger JJ, Thein T, Benammi M, et al. 1999. discussed “Phylogenetic and Biogeo- stratigraphy of early African A new primate from the Middle Eocene of graphic Implications of Early Anom- Proboscideans and Embrithopods.” Myanmar and the Asian early origin of anthro- poids. Science 286: 528–530. aluroid Rodents.” There are several In contrast to the rich, continuous, 3 Rossie JB, Seiffert ER. 2006. Continental species of these large, mostly gliding and well-dated Afro-Arabian Miocene paleobiogeography as phylogenetic evidence. rodents in Africa today, but remark- proboscidean fossil record, there is In: Lehman S, Fleagle JG, editors. Primate Bio- geography. New York: Plenum Press. p 469– ably little is known about their no consensus about the age of primi- 522. behavior and ecology. The living Zen- tive western Asian and eastern Euro- 4 Seiffert ER. 2012. Early primate evolution in kerella is particularly distinctive in pean embrithopods. This is a critical Afro-Arabia. Evol Anthropol 21: 239–253. lacking a patagium. Fossil anomalur- question with regard to understand- 5 Licht A, van Cappelle M, Abels HA, et al. 2014. Asian monsoons in a late Eocene green- ids, which are known from several ing whether these afrotheres origi- house world. Nature 513: 501–506. Paleogene sites in North Africa, nated in Africa or Eurasia. 6 Sanders WJ, Gheerbrant E, Harris JM, et al. could potentially be useful as bio- Moreover, the Afro-Arabian Paleo- 2010. Proboscidea. In: Werdelin L, Sanders WJ, editors. Cenozoic mammals of Africa. Berkeley: stratigraphic markers. Hesham Sal- gene proboscidean fossil record is University of California Press. p 161–251. lam (Mansoura Egypt) offered a less speciose and has a large gap presentation on “Earliest Hystricog- spanning the entire middle Eocene.6 nathous Rodents from North Africa,” The occurrence of embrithopods and John G. Fleagle with special emphasis on the Fayum, proboscideans from Dur at Talah, Stony Brook University where there is an extensive fossil especially in comparison with taxa at VC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. record. He described the dental and Bir el Ater and in the Fayum Published online in Wiley Online Library cranial anatomy, as well as the strat- sequence, is inconsistent with a Bar- (wileyonlinelibrary.com). igraphic distribution, of numerous tonian age for the site, and supports DOI 10.1002/evan.21444.