Abstract
Primates have been known from Eocene deposits in southern Asia since 1927 (Pilgrim, 1927). Three relatively large-bodied taxa, Pondaungia, Arnphipithecus, and Siamopithecus, the first two from Myanmar and the latter from Thailand, have played leading roles in discussions of the importance of Asian primates to the origin of anthropoids. All of these taxa traditionally have been viewed as anthropoids (Ba Maw et al., 1979; Chaimanee et al., 1997; Ciochon and Holroyd, 1994; Ciochon et al., 1985; Ducrocq, 1999a; Jaeger et al., 1998), or at least as potential anthropoid sister taxa, although these interpretations have not been universally accepted (see Ciochon and Gunnell, 2000a,b for reviews of the history of Pondaung large-bodied primates). In this chapter, we reexamine all of the dental, cranial, and postcranial evidence available for these primates (see Table 1), briefly review current ideas on their phylogenetic affinities, and then offer our own interpretation as to their relationships.
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Ciochon, R.L., Gunnell, G.F. (2004). Eocene Large-Bodied Primates of Myanmar and Thailand: Morphological Considerations and Phylogenetic Affinities. 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_11
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