Abstract
The Pondaung Formation in Myanmar has been known since mammals of Eocene age were described by Pilgrim and Cotter in 1916. These fossils included artiodactyls (Anthracotheriidae) and perissodactyls (Amynodontidae), carnivores, and primates. The primates from the Pondaung Formation, whose anthropoid status has long been debated, are represented by Pondaungia cotteri Pilgrim, 1927, Amphipithecus mogcmngensis Colbert, 1937, Bahinia pondaungensis Jaeger et al., 1999, and Myanmarpithecus ytmhensis Takai et al., 2001. These fossils are of particular interest because they represent forms older than those known from the Fayum of Egypt, and have featured in arguments that anthropoids may have arisen in Asia, rather than Africa. Amphipithecus mongaungensis has long been known only by two fragmentary lower jaws (AMNH-32520 and NMMP-2) preserving P3-M2, and there has been a continued debate about whether it is an anthropoid, an adapid, or even a hominoid. The systematic position of Pondaungia cotteri has also been hotly debated and was recently successively attributed to adapiforms, to anthropoids, or to something different from notharctine adapiforms.
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Thein, T. (2004). A Review of the Large-Bodied Pondaung Primates of Myanmar. In: Ross, C.F., Kay, R.F. (eds) Anthropoid Origins. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8873-7_10
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