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| Home > Articles > Published articles > Palaeoecological differences underlie rare co-occurrence of Miocene European primates |
(Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont) (Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología) (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont) (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont) (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont) (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)| Date: | 2021 |
| Abstract: | Background: The two main primate groups recorded throughout the European Miocene, hominoids and pliopithecoids, seldom co-occur. Due to both their rarity and insufficiently understood palaeoecology, it is currently unclear whether the infrequent co-occurrence of these groups is due to sampling bias or reflects different ecological preferences. Here we rely on the densely sampled primate-bearing sequence of Abocador de Can Mata (ACM) in Spain to test whether turnovers in primate assemblages are correlated with palaeoenvironmental changes. We reconstruct dietary evolution through time (ca. 12. 6-11. 4Ma), and hence climate and habitat, using tooth-wear patterns and carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of enamel of the ubiquitous musk-deer Micromeryx. Results: Our results reveal that primate species composition is strongly correlated with distinct environmental phases. Large-bodied hominoids (dryopithecines) are recorded in humid, densely-forested environments on the lowermost portion of the ACM sequence. In contrast, pliopithecoids inhabited less humid, patchy ecosystems, being replaced by dryopithecines and the small-bodied Pliobates toward the top of the series in gallery forests embedded in mosaic environments. Conclusions: These results support the view that pliopithecoid primates preferred less humid habitats than hominoids, and reveal that differences in behavioural ecology were the main factor underpinning their rare cooccurrence during the European Miocene. Our findings further support that ACM hominoids, like Miocene apes as a whole, inhabited more seasonal environments than extant apes. Finally, this study highlights the importance of high-resolution, local investigations to complement larger-scale analyses and illustrates that continuous and densely sampled fossiliferous sequences are essential for deciphering the complex interplay between biotic and abiotic factors that shaped past diversity. |
| Grants: | Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2016-79334-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2017-82654-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PGC2018-094955-AI00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RYC-2013-12470 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-116 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-960 |
| Note: | Altres ajuts: Fundación Ibercaja and Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain), and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya |
| Rights: | Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.  |
| Language: | Anglès |
| Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
| Subject: | Hominoids ; Pliopithecoids ; Primate evolution/adaptation ; Palaeodiet ; Stable isotopes ; Tooth wear ; Feeding behaviour ; Palaeobiology |
| Published in: | BMC biology, Vol. 19 (January 2021) , art. 6, ISSN 1741-7007 |
| Related work: | DeMiguel, Daniel; Domingo, Laura; Sánchez, Israel M.; [et al.]. «Publisher Correction to : Palaeoecological differences underlie rare co-occurrence of Miocene European primates». BMC biology, Vol. 19 (July 2021), art. 151 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01089-y |
