TY - JOUR
T1 - New sivaladapid primate from Lower Siwalik deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir State), India
AU - Gilbert, Christopher C.
AU - Patel, Biren A.
AU - Singh, N. Premjit
AU - Campisano, Christopher
AU - Fleagle, John G.
AU - Rust, Kathleen L.
AU - Patnaik, Rajeev
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Judy Galkin (AMNH), Chris Norris and Daniel Brinkman (YPM), and Larry Flynn (Harvard) for access to original specimens and casts in their care. Susan Bell and the AMNH archives provided key correspondence between Barnum Brown and W.D. Matthew documenting the early AMNH exploration of the Ramnagar area. Yaowalak Chaimanee kindly provided casts of Siamoadapis for study. We also thank Larry Flynn and John Barry for helpful discussions and advice. Sheena Lad provided the photographs of VPL/RSP1 in Figure 3 and the SOM. Erik Seiffert, Laurent Marivaux, an anonymous reviewer, and the editors at JHE provided helpful comments that greatly improved this manuscript. Kelsey Pugh provided helpful advice and software instruction for MrBayes. Finally, we thank Bino Varghese and the University of Southern California's Molecular Imaging Center for access and assistance with micro-CT scanning. This study was generously supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the PSC-CUNY faculty research award program, Hunter College, the AAPA Professional Development Program, the University of Southern California, and the Institute of Human Origins (ASU). RP is supported by Ministry of Earth Science project (MoES/P.O. (Geoscience)/46/2015) and DST, PURSE.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Over the past century, numerous vertebrate fossils collected near the town of Ramnagar, India, have proven to be important for understanding the evolution and biogeography of many mammalian groups. Primates from Ramnagar, though rare, include a number of hominoid specimens attributable to Sivapithecus, as well as a single published mandibular fragment preserving the P4-M1 of the Miocene adapoid Sivaladapis palaeindicus. Since 2010, we have renewed fossil prospecting in the Lower Siwalik deposits near Ramnagar in an attempt to better understand the evolution, biogeographic timing, and paleoclimatic context of mammalian radiations in Asia, with a particular focus on primates. Our explorations have resulted in the identification of new fossil localities, including the site of Sunetar. The age of Sunetar and the Ramnagar region, in general, is tentatively dated between 14 and 11 Ma. In 2014, a partial right mandible of a sivaladapid primate was recovered at Sunetar, preserving the corpus with P4 roots and worn M1-M3 dentition. Although sivaladapids are known by numerous specimens of two genera (Sivaladapis and Indraloris) at Lower Siwalik sites on the Potwar Plateau (Pakistan) and at the Middle Siwalik locality of Haritalyangar (India), this new specimen is just the second sivaladapid recovered from the Ramnagar region. Our analyses suggest that the new specimen is distinct from all other sivaladapids, and we therefore describe it as a new genus and species close to the base of the Sivaladapinae.
AB - Over the past century, numerous vertebrate fossils collected near the town of Ramnagar, India, have proven to be important for understanding the evolution and biogeography of many mammalian groups. Primates from Ramnagar, though rare, include a number of hominoid specimens attributable to Sivapithecus, as well as a single published mandibular fragment preserving the P4-M1 of the Miocene adapoid Sivaladapis palaeindicus. Since 2010, we have renewed fossil prospecting in the Lower Siwalik deposits near Ramnagar in an attempt to better understand the evolution, biogeographic timing, and paleoclimatic context of mammalian radiations in Asia, with a particular focus on primates. Our explorations have resulted in the identification of new fossil localities, including the site of Sunetar. The age of Sunetar and the Ramnagar region, in general, is tentatively dated between 14 and 11 Ma. In 2014, a partial right mandible of a sivaladapid primate was recovered at Sunetar, preserving the corpus with P4 roots and worn M1-M3 dentition. Although sivaladapids are known by numerous specimens of two genera (Sivaladapis and Indraloris) at Lower Siwalik sites on the Potwar Plateau (Pakistan) and at the Middle Siwalik locality of Haritalyangar (India), this new specimen is just the second sivaladapid recovered from the Ramnagar region. Our analyses suggest that the new specimen is distinct from all other sivaladapids, and we therefore describe it as a new genus and species close to the base of the Sivaladapinae.
KW - Chinji
KW - Indraloris
KW - Miocene
KW - Ramadapis sahnii
KW - Sivaladapis
KW - Sunetar
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85003020684&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85003020684&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.10.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 28012462
AN - SCOPUS:85003020684
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 102
SP - 21
EP - 41
JO - Journal of human evolution
JF - Journal of human evolution
ER -