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Oligocene primates from China reveal divergence between African and Asian primate evolution
Yunnanadapis folivorus Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016
Yunnanadapis imperator Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016
Laomaki yunnanensis Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016
Gatanthropus micros Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016
Oligotarsius rarus Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016
Bahinia banyueae Ni, Li, Li & Beard, 2016

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) functioned as a critical filtering episode during the evolutionary history of primates. Comparing the composition of the early Oligocene primate faunas from Asia reveals that surviving this Eocene-Oligocene evolutionary filter entailed a high degree of taxonomic and ecological selectivity: later Eocene primate assemblages tend to be dominated, both in terms of taxonomic richness and numerical abundance, by stem anthropoids, whereas the Oligocene primate tend to be dominated by lemur-like strepsirrhine primates. A similar comparison of the late Eocene-early Oligocene primates from Afro-Arabia shows a very different pattern of selectivity in response to the EOT: very few strepsirrhine primates survived the EOT, whereas anthropoids diversified both taxonomically and ecologically. The divergent responses shown by Afro-Arabian and Asian primates across the EOT evolutionary filter constrained the subsequent course of primate macroevolutionary pattern across the Old World. Africa became the geographic nexus of anthropoid evolution, whereas Asia shows a strong break between Paleogene and Neogene anthropoid assemblages. 
Credit: Xijun Ni

Abstract:
"Profound environmental and faunal changes are associated with climatic deterioration during the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) roughly 34 million years ago. Reconstructing how Asian primates responded to the EOT has been hindered by a sparse record of Oligocene primates on that continent. Here, we report the discovery of a diverse primate fauna from the early Oligocene of southern China. In marked contrast to Afro-Arabian Oligocene primate faunas, this Asian fauna is dominated by strepsirhines. There appears to be a strong break between Paleogene and Neogene Asian anthropoid assemblages. Asian and Afro-Arabian primate faunas responded differently to EOT climatic deterioration, indicating that the EOT functioned as a critical evolutionary filter constraining the subsequent course of primate evolution across the Old World."

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