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Dryad

Data from: A parapithecid stem anthropoid of African origin in the Paleogene of South America

Cite this dataset

Seiffert, Erik et al. (2020). Data from: A parapithecid stem anthropoid of African origin in the Paleogene of South America [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0vt4b8gtt

Abstract

Phylogenetic evidence suggests that platyrrhine (or New World) monkeys and caviomorph rodents of the Western Hemisphere derive from source groups from the Eocene of Afro-Arabia, a landmass that was ~1500 to 2000 kilometers east of South America during the late Paleogene. Here, we report evidence for a third mammalian lineage of African origin in the Paleogene of South Americaa newly discovered genus and species of parapithecid anthropoid primate from Santa Rosa in Amazonian Perú. Bayesian clockbased phylogenetic analysis nests this genus (Ucayalipithecus) deep within the otherwise Afro-Arabian clade Parapithecoidea, and indicates that transatlantic rafting of the lineage leading to Ucayalipithecus likely took place between ~35 and ~32 million years ago, a dispersal window that includes the major worldwide drop in sea level that occurred near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.

Funding

National Science Foundation, Award: BCS-1231288

Leakey Foundation