Dryopithecinae

MOLECULAR-BASED PHYLOGENY OF ANCIENT HOMINOIDS

Extensive samplings and excavations during many decades in the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Spain) have led to a vast collection of fossil vertebrate remains, including Miocene hominoid remains, now curated at the Museum of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Sabadell (Partner: ICP). Most noteworthy are the partial skeletons of the fossil apes: Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (12.0 Ma), Hispanopithecus laietanus (9.6 Ma), and Pliobates cataloniae (11.6 Ma). The former two, included in the extinct subfamily Dryopithecinae, are generally interpreted as stem great apes preceding the divergence between pongines (orangutans) and hominins (African apes and humans), with Pierolapithecus being the oldest unambiguous documented occurrence of an orthograde bodyplan (characteristic of extant apes) in the fossil record. However, uncertainties persist regarding their phylogenetic status, with some researchers advocating instead for closer phylogenetic relationship with either hominins or pongines. In turn, Pliobates has been interpreted as a stem hominoid preceding the divergence between lesser and great apes, although alternate interpretations (stem catarrhine, stem hylobatid) cannot be confidently ruled out. By clarifying the phylogenetic position of the aforementioned taxa, PROJECT 1 will decipher the evolutionary history of hominoids during the Miocene in Southern Europe. ESR1’s research project results will definitely have utmost significance for the reconstruction of the last common ancestors shared by gibbons and great apes (Pliobates) as well as that of pongines and hominins (Pierolapithecus and Hispanopithecus).