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

SEIFFERT, ERIK R.; TEJEDOR, MARCELO F.; FLEAGLE, JOHN G.; NOVO, NELSON M.; CORNEJO, FANNY M.; BOND, MARIANO; DE VRIES, DORIEN; CAMPBELL, KENNETH E.

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2020 vol. 368 p. 194 - 197

0036-8075

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 America-a newly discovered genus and species of parapithecid anthropoid primate from Santa Rosa in Amazonian Perú. Bayesian clock-based 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.