Abstract
Paleontologists have often looked to Asia as a center of origin for anthropoid primates (e.g., Pilgrim, 1927; Colbert, 1937, 1938; Ba Maw et al., 1979; Gingerich, 1980; Ciochon and Chiarelli, 1980; Ciochon et al., 1985; Ciochon and Etler, 1994). In part, this notion has been founded in the accepted earlier occurrence of putative anthropoids or “protoanthropoids” in the Asian faunal record. In particular, the occurrence of characters similar to those found in African anthropoids in the Pondaung primates Amphipithecus and Pondaungia from presumed upper Eocene deposits in the Pondaung Hills of Burma (now Myanmar) has led to conjecture that this area represented the center of Origin for higher primates. However, the criterion of earlier occurrence has been eliminated by the redating of the earliest Fay urn anthropoid fauna to the late Eocene (Kappelman, 1992; Rasmussen et al., 1992) such that the Fayum anthropoids would be penecontemporaneous with the Asian primates Amphipithecus, Pondaungia, Hoanghonius, and Rencunius (see Chapter 7, this volume) based on current age assessments.
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Holroyd, P.A., Ciochon, R.L. (1994). Relative Ages of Eocene Primate-Bearing Deposits of Asia. In: Fleagle, J.G., Kay, R.F. (eds) Anthropoid Origins. Advances in Primatology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9197-6_5
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