Why it matters: Hominoids — which includes modern humans, our archaic ancestors and relatives, and great apes — diversified into dozens of different species starting roughly 23 million years ago.
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Scientists estimate the Miocene period, which spanned from 5 million to 25 million years ago, produced more than 40 different species of hominoids — a term for a superfamily of primates that includes apes, humans and related ancestral species.
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A new discovery of a nearly intact 13 million-year-old infant ape skull could fill a critical gap in our understanding of how similar hominoids began to evolve and differentiate into separate species, researchers reported in Nature today.
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Hominoids consist of seven dental and gnathic specimens, reviewed by Leakey and Walker.
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Fossils of ancient hominoids Ramapithecus were found near the Tinau (Tilottama) River as early as 1932, including a 10.1-million-year-old tooth.
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The New World monkeys and the Old World monkeys are each monophyletic groups, but their combination was not, since it excluded hominoids (apes and humans). Thus the term "monkey" no longer referred to a recognized scientific taxon. The smallest accepted taxon which contains all the monkeys is the infraorder Simiiformes, or simians. However this also contains the hominoids, so that monkeys are, in terms of currently recognized taxa, non-hominoid simians.
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Griphopithecus has been consistently grouped with stem hominoids. The material therefore indicates the range of hominoid locomotor anatomy in mid-Miocene Europe, rather than a specifically crown hominoid anatomy.
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A brown-throated three-toed sloth Arboreal mammalian folivores, such as sloths, koalas, and some species of monkeys and lemurs, tend to be large and climb cautiously.Cautious climbing and folivory: a model of hominoid differentation E. E. Sarmiento1 in Human Evolution Volume 10, Number 4, August, 1995 Similarities in body shape and head- and tooth-structure between early hominoids and various families of arboreal folivores have been advanced as evidence that early hominoids were also folivorous.
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Social hierarchy is seen not just as a universal human feature- SDT argues there is substantial evidence it is shared, including the theorized trimorphic structure- both among all hominoids as well as other primates.
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Ekembo is one of the earliest ape (Hominoids), after having diverged from the old world monkeys. The Dendropithecidae appear to be sister to Ekembo. Ekembo was found to be paraphyletic with respect to Proconsul and the more advanced Hominoidea.
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Today, the fusiform gyrus is considered to be specific to hominoids. This is supported by research showing only three temporal gyri and no fusiform gyrus in macaques. The first accurate definition of the mid-fusiform sulcus was coined by Gustav Retzius in 1896.
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This is accomplished by comparing the different HERV from different evolutionary periods. For example, this study was done for different hominoids, which ranged from humans to apes and to monkeys. This is difficult to do with PERV because of the large diversity present.
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4–1 years. Lateral enamel formed in 686–1078 days .The age of first molar emergence for PA868 resembles that of extant great apes and is less in relation to modern humans. Lufengpithecus lufengensis is more similar to great apes and the hominoids and less related to monkeys and modern humans.
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The name Lluc is the Catalan form of Luke, which in Latin suggests "light", as this discovery enlighted our early evolution. The modern anatomical features that characterized the family Hominidae visible in Lluc's fossil among others are: unique facial pattern for hominoids, nasal aperture wide at the base, high cheek bone, and deep palate.
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Hominoids are a primate superfamily, the hominid family is currently considered to comprise both the great ape lineages and human lineages within the hominoid superfamily. The "Homininae" comprise both the human lineages and the African ape lineages. The term "African apes" refers only to chimpanzees and gorillas. The terminology of the immediate biological family is currently in flux.
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PA 868 is a juvenile mandible which was in process of sprouting its first molar of the Lufengpithecus lufengensis and was found in the Yunnan Province in southwestern China around the late 1950s.Zhao, Lingxia, and Zhufang He."Dental Development and Ontogeny of Late Miocene Large-bodied Hominoids from Yunnan, China." AS Anthropological Science (2004): 79-83. Print.
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Most well known is Lufengosaurus, a Jurassic prosauropod. More recently, teeth and a skull of Ramapithecus, a Miocene period primate related to the orangutan, have been found in Lufeng. Dennis A. Etler, The fossil hominoids of Lufeng, Yunnan Province, the People's Republic of China: A series of translations, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 27, Issue S5, pp.
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Unlike the distinct tubular form seen in H. erectus, the tympanic plate is thin and foreshortened, a condition similar to that of modern humans.Etler, D.A. (2001). Picture Gallery of Fossil Hominoids and Hominids from China , from the Center for Study of Chinese Prehistory. Unlike H. erectus skulls, the Dali skull lacks the "pinched" look between the face and the cranial vault.
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Towards the east in Assam, Nummulitic limestone is found in the Khasi hills. Oil is associated with these rocks of the Oligo-Miocene age. Along the foothills of the Himalayas the Siwalik molasse is composed of sandstones, conglomerates and shales with thicknesses of to and ranging from Eocene to Pliocene. These rocks are famous for their rich fossil vertebrate fauna including many fossil hominoids.
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Bone, shell, and sediment studies have contributed much to the paleontological record, including that relating to hominoids. Verification of radiocarbon and other dating techniques by amino acid racemization and vice versa has occurred. The 'filling in' of large probability ranges, such as with radiocarbon reservoir effects, has sometimes been possible. Paleopathology and dietary selection, paleozoogeography and indigineity, taxonomy and taphonomy, and DNA viability studies abound.
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Markotic took interest in bigfoot and was a researcher in the field of cryptozoology, which has been criticized as pseudoscience. In 1984, he contributed a chapter to the book The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Hominoids, which he also edited with Grover Krantz. The book consists of 21 papers by a multitude of authors. It was negatively reviewed by Michael R. Dennett in the Skeptical Inquirer.
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All Australopithecus were bipedal, small-brained, and had large teeth. A. anamensis is often confused with Australopithecus afarensis due to their similar bone structure and their habitation of woodland areas. These similarities include thick tooth enamel, which is a shared derived trait of all Australopithecus and shared with most Miocene hominoids. Tooth size variability in A. anamensis suggests that there was significant body size variation.
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Dennett commented that "The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Hominoids is bad science and, taken as a whole, bad writing... Until some real evidence comes to light there is no reason for anyone to take Sasquatch promoters seriously, especially if this book represents their best effort." Anthropologist Kathleen J. Reichs wrote that the book failed to provide a scientifically rigour analysis of the physical evidence for unknown hominoids and is "riddled throughout with typographical and grammatical errors." She concluded that the book is unsatisfying from the point of view of physical anthropology but is worth reading for providing insight into non-mainstream interpretations of hominid evolution. Biologist Debra A. Oleksiak commented that apart from a few exceptions "there is no critical evaluation of the sources and the accuracy of the data" and noted that many of the papers in the book "do not reflect an understanding of biological processes or evolutionary thinking".
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Usually the molecular clock is calibrated assuming that the orangutan split from the African apes (including humans) 12-16 MYA. Some studies also include some old world monkeys and set the divergence time of them from hominoids to 25-30 MYA. Both calibration points are based on very little fossil data and have been criticized. If these dates are revised, the divergence times estimated from molecular data will change as well.
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Third, vestigial traits with no clear purpose resemble functional ancestral traits. Fourth, organisms can be classified using these similarities into a hierarchy of nested groups, similar to a family tree. hominoids are descendants of a common ancestor. Modern research has suggested that, due to horizontal gene transfer, this "tree of life" may be more complicated than a simple branching tree since some genes have spread independently between distantly related species.
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These elongated teeth are unlike many other Miocene hominoids, linking Samburupithecus the taxon to gorillas, chimpanzees and hominins, but its relationships within this clade is at present unclear. Because of this mixture of primitive and derived traits in the KNM-SH 8531 specimen, it has been proposed that Samburupithecus lived before the gorilla-chimpanzee-hominin split and, therefore, that it is a common ancestor to these primates alongside Ouranopithecus.
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Aside from an external nose structure, some primates contain a vomeronasal organ to detect odorants of higher molecular weight. Genomic analysis has asserted that vomeronasal organ receptors became impaired approximately 23 million years ago in primate evolution, before the advent separation of Old World monkeys and hominoids. Furthermore, multiple lines of evidence depict that the entire accessory olfactory system became nonfunctional in pheromonal communication before this divergence took place.4 Cave AJE. 1973.
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"Conventionally, taxonomists now refer to the great ape family (including humans) as 'hominids', while all members of the lineage leading to modern humans that arose after the split with the [Homo- Pan] LCA are referred to as 'hominins'. The older literature used the terms hominoids and hominids respectively." Minority dissenting nomenclatures include Gorilla in Hominini and Pan in Homo (Goodman et al. 1998), or both Pan and Gorilla in Homo (Watson et al. 2001).
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Genetic analysis combined with fossil evidence indicates that hominoids diverged from the Old World monkeys about 25 million years ago (Mya), near the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. The most recent common ancestors (MRCA) of the subfamilies Homininae and Ponginae lived about 15 million years ago.The most well-known fossil genus of Ponginae is Sivapithecus, consisting of several species from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years ago. It differs from orangutans in dentition and postcranial morphology.
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The authors consider the divergence time between Old World monkeys and hominoids to be 30 million years ago (MYA), based on fossil data, and the immunological distance was considered to grow at a constant rate. They concluded that divergence time of humans and the African apes to be roughly ~5 MYA. That was a surprising result. Most scientists at that time thought that humans and great apes diverged much earlier (>15 MYA).
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Although absent in hominoids, the panniculus carnosus is common in non-hominoid primates and non-primate mammals.Diogo R, Wood BA, Comparative Anatomy and Phylogeny of Primate Muscles and Human Evolution, CRC Press, 2012. In lower mammals the area of the panniculus carnosus can be extensive, almost covering the entire body in the case of the short-beaked echidna.Griffiths M, Walton DW (Editor), Richardson BJ (Editor), Fauna of Australia Volume 1B, AGPS Canberra, 1989.
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See for example "Comparisons with Other Hominoids" in (Kunimatsu, Nakatsukasa et al. Dec 2007) the coccyx is the remnant of a vestigial tail. In animals with bony tails, it is known as tailhead or dock, in bird anatomy as tailfan. It comprises three to five separate or fused coccygeal vertebrae below the sacrum, attached to the sacrum by a fibrocartilaginous joint, the sacrococcygeal symphysis, which permits limited movement between the sacrum and the coccyx.
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This species had an auditory region which is similar to that found in platyrrhines, having no bony tube and the tympanic fused to the lateral surface of the bulla. The humerus has a head which faces posteriorly and is narrower than primates that practice suspensory behavior. The humerus also shares some features with extinct hominoids: a large medial epicondyle and a comparatively wide trochlea. This species had an ulna that compares to the extinct members of the genus Alouatta.
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Those features are useful when attempting to explain trackway patterns of graviportal animals. When studying ichnology to calculate sauropod speed, there are a few problems, such as only providing estimates for certain gaits because of preservation bias, and being subject to many more accuracy problems. Most likely walking gait of Argentinosaurus To estimate the gait and speed of Argentinosaurus, the study performed a musculoskeletal analysis. The only previous musculoskeletal analyses were conducted on hominoids, terror birds, and other dinosaurs.
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Moreover, Epipliopithecus has an extremely primitive elbow with enteepicondylar foramen. This morphology does not allow for the arm to be fully extended as in suspensory hominoids like chimpanzees, orangutans, or gibbons. Combined with a hinge-like thumb joint, similar to the condition seen in New World monkeys, these traits suggest that Epipliopithecus was a quadruped who moved atop tree branches similar to small and medium-sized monkeys. Epipliopithecus can be distinguished from other pliopithecoids by a number of unique dental traits.
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This means along with consuming some hard fruits, they would also consume berries and leaves. An alternative theory that was developed about L. Lufengensis is that their diet was strictly leaves and berries. Research was done on a set of upper and lower molars and measurements of both the mesiodistal and buccolingual cusps were done and compared with other indigenous apes of the area in the time period. L. Lufengensis's molars were much larger than all the other hominoids in size.
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Despite the predictions from the genetic tests, little fossil evidence has been found for a last common ancestor between 30 and 23 mya, favoring a later split. Only isolated teeth of Kamoyapithecus hinted at the existence of potential basal hominoids in the late Oligocene (between 24 and 27.5 mya), while the oldest fossil Old World monkey, Victoriapithecus macinnesi, dates to 19 mya. With the discovery of Saadanius, Zalmout et al. suggested a later split than the genetic data, dating between 29–28 and 24 mya.
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Colloquially and pop-culturally, the term is ambiguous and sometimes monkey includes non-human hominoids. In addition, frequent arguments are made for a monophyletic usage of the word "monkey" from the perspective that usage should reflect cladistics. A group of monkeys may be commonly referred to as a tribe or a troop. Two separate groups of primates are referred to as "monkeys": New World monkeys (platyrrhines) from South and Central America and Old World monkeys (catarrhines in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea) from Africa and Asia.
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The coccyx (plural: coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and other great apes) since Nacholapithecus (a Miocene hominoid),Nakatsukasa 2004, Acquisition of bipedalism (See Fig. 5 entitled First coccygeal/caudal vertebra in short-tailed or tailless primates..)Note: Nacholapithecus and Nakaliphitecus nakayamai are two different species of Miocene hominoids (specimens from Nakali and Nachola respectively).
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The discovery of a skull which estimates say is around 40,000 years old on Niah Caves in Sarawak, has been identified as the earliest evidence for human settlement in Malaysian Borneo. Stone hand-axes from early hominoids, probably Homo erectus, have been unearthed in Lenggong. They date back 1.83 million years, the oldest evidence of hominid habitation in Southeast Asia. The earliest evidence of modern human habitation in Malaysia is the 40,000-year-old skull excavated from the Niah Caves in today's Sarawak, nicknamed "Deep Skull".
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Dental fossil records for early humans and hominins show that immature hominins, including australopithecines and members of Homo, have a quiescent period (Bown et al. 1987). A quiescent period is a period in which there are no dental eruptions of adult teeth; at this time the child becomes more accustomed to social structure, and development of culture. During this time the child is given an extra advantage over other hominoids, devoting several years into developing speech and learning to cooperate within a community. This period is also discussed in relation to encephalization.
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Many thousands of fossils are now known from five major sites, with abundant hominoids including an almost complete skeleton of a second species of Proconsul, as well as Nyanzapithecus, Limnopithecus, Dendropithecus and Micropithecus,A University College London research article discussing finds of these fossil apes at Koru and elsewhere, including Rusinga, can be found at New Finds of Small Fossil Apes from the Miocene Locality at Koru in Kenya by T. Harrison. The article is displayed at the nyu.edu site, no charge. all of which show arboreal rather than terrestrial adaptations.
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Aegyptopithecus skull Aegyptopithecus ("Egyptian ape", from Greek Αίγυπτος "Egypt" and πίθηκος "ape") is an early fossil catarrhine that predates the divergence between hominoids (apes) and cercopithecids (Old World monkeys). It is known from a single species, Aegyptopithecus zeuxis, which lived around 38-29.5 million years ago in the early part of the Oligocene epoch. It likely resembled modern-day New World monkeys, and was about the same size as a modern howler monkey, which is about long. Aegyptopithecus fossils have been found in the Jebel Qatrani Formation of modern-day Egypt.
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Postcranial features exhibit morphological features that suggest a mosaic of locomotive behaviors. The structure of the cortical bone at the proximal and distal ends of the femur, particularly the neck of the femoral head, indicate an orthograde body plan.Pina, M, Alba, D, Almécija, S, Fortuny, J, & Moyà-Solà, S 2012, "Brief communication: Paleobiological inferences on the locomotor repertoire of extinct hominoids based on femoral neck cortical thickness: The fossil great ape Hispanopithecus laietanus as a test-case study", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149, 1, p. 142-148, Scopus, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 October 2014.
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A group of hot springs discharge along the shoreline at Soro near the northeastern corner of the island. Several important archaeological and palaeontological sites, some of which have yielded fossil hominoids and hominins, are present in the Miocene to Pleistocene sedimentary sequences of the Tugen Hills. Abstract from web search The main town near the lake is Marigat, while smaller settlements include Kampi ya Samaki and Loruk. The area is increasingly visited by tourists and is situated at the southern end of a region of Kenya inhabited largely by pastoralist ethnic groups including Il Chamus, Rendille, Turkana and Kalenjin.
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Some argue that this taxa is a distinct clade of late Miocene East Asian hominoids that are not closely related to any extant taxa. In fact, compared to YV0999 (a cranium of L. hudienensis from Yuanmou), there may have been a high degree of local endemism of apes during this time, due to the wide differences between the two species. This fits with the topographic data of Southwest China at the time, which was subject to uplift and erosion, which created the complex topography of mountain ranges and basins that is still present in current day.
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The enamel on the cusp of the molars is still relatively thick, this displays they were not worn down by tough foods. The crowns on their teeth tend to be less worn than those of other extinct apes that once inhabited the same area, such as L. Hudienensis. These four categories that researchers took in to account when examining the molars supports the hypothesis that they have proposed about L. Lufengensis's diet.Wu Liu, Zhang Liang, "Comparisons of tooth size and morphology between the late Miocene hominoids from Lufeng and Yuanmou, China, and their implications" Anthropological Science Vol.
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The youngest of the Miocene hominoids, Oreopithecus, is from coal beds in Italy that have been dated to 9 million years ago. Molecular evidence indicates that the lineage of gibbons (family Hylobatidae) diverged from the line of great apes some 18–12 million years ago, and that of orangutans (subfamily Ponginae) diverged from the other great apes at about 12 million years; there are no fossils that clearly document the ancestry of gibbons, which may have originated in a so- far-unknown Southeast Asian hominoid population, but fossil proto-orangutans may be represented by Sivapithecus from India and Griphopithecus from Turkey, dated to around 10 million years ago.
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L. lufengensis had a diet that consisted of both hard and soft fruits based on the paleoenvironment. L. lefungensis had similarly developed molar shearing crests to other miocine hominids such as Proconsul nyanzae, Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, Dendropithecus macinnesis and a Yuanmou hominoid, indicating a possible preference for harder fruits. However, the Yuanmou hominoid differs from teeth of the genus Lufengpithecus in several aspects of the evidence studied such as tooth size proportions, M2 shearing crest development, tooth enamel thickness and body weight .When compared to hominoid species of similar regions such as a Yuanmou hominid, L. lufengensis has smaller front teeth indicating at least a partly more folivorous diet compared to other extinct hominoids.
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The reduced degree of sexual dimorphism in humans is visible primarily in the reduction of the male canine tooth relative to other ape species (except gibbons) and reduced brow ridges and general robustness of males. Another important physiological change related to sexuality in humans was the evolution of hidden estrus. Humans are the only hominoids in which the female is fertile year round and in which no special signals of fertility are produced by the body (such as genital swelling or overt changes in proceptivity during estrus). Nonetheless, humans retain a degree of sexual dimorphism in the distribution of body hair and subcutaneous fat, and in the overall size, males being around 15% larger than females.
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Later, blood samples from various primates: hominoids, Old World monkeys, New World monkeys and prosimians were probed using a fluorescently labeled HERV-W element derived from the gorilla fosmid library. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) revealed HERV-W elements in all the primate blood samples except the tupaia. With this information and the divergence values of the 5’ and 3’ LTRs the construction of a phylogenetic tree was possible. This data implies that the HERV-W genome integrated into its host's germ-line around 63 million years ago, expanded in the era of Old and New World monkeys and then evolved independently. Since its integration the 5’ and 3’ LTR have followed independent evolution in each species.
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His methodology involved mapping cortical areas via simple visual inspection of endocasts from mummies, as well as of fresh whole and sectioned brains. Paleoneurologists and scientists study endocasts in order to gather information about brain size and shape, as well as sulcal patterns resulting from pressure-induced impressions by the brain’s surface. Comparison of data gathered from endocasts and the brains of living hominoids allows scientists to study the evolution of the human brain, both anatomically and cognitively. Ultimately, Smith argued that the lunate sulcus was responsible for delineating the rostrolateral boundary of the V1 in both humans and non- human primates, and even pointed out the specific location of the lunate sulcus in chimpanzee versus human brains.
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Discrediting this theory was evidence supporting that damage to the frontal lobe in both humans and hominoids show atypical social and emotional behavior; thus, this similarity means that the frontal lobe was not very likely to be selected for reorganization. Instead, it is now believed that evolution occurred in other parts of the brain that are strictly associated with certain behaviors. The reorganization that took place is thought to have been more organizational than volumetric; whereas the brain volumes were relatively the same but specific landmark position of surface anatomical features, for example, the lunate sulcus suggest that the brains had been through a neurological reorganization. There is also evidence that the early hominin lineage also underwent a quiescent period, which supports the idea of neural reorganization.
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Analysis of the microwear of the teeth of Hispanopithecus indicate a morphological preference for softer foods, including fruits and possibly young leaves. A combination of surface scratches and pitting are indicative of a mixed diet, lacking many hard foods like nuts and seeds except in times of soft food scarcity and lacking wear patterns common with heavy folivore diets.DeMiguel, D, Alba, D, & Moyà-Solà, S 2014, 'Dietary specialization during the evolution of Western Eurasian hominoids and the extinction of European great apes', Plos ONE, 9, 5, Scopus®, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 October 2014. Linear hypoplasia is common, which would suggest episodes of malnutrition stress during dental development, indicating the need for fall-back foods in the diet when preferred foods are unavailable.
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Evidence suggests that the environment of Hispanopithecus on the Iberian Peninsula was tropical to subtropical with marsh-like features. Flora of the period is preserved as samples of evergreen laurels, palms, reeds, and marsh herbs in wet areas and diverse leguminous trees and shrubs in lowland dry areas. Figs have been preserved in the stratographic layer which also contained hominid teeth, which would have been available year-round in the Middle Miocene.Alba, D, Casanovas-Vilar, I, Almécija, S, Robles, J, Arias- Martorell, J, & Moyà-Solà, S 2012, 'New dental remains of Hispanopithecus laietanus (Primates: Hominidae) from Can Llobateres 1 and the taxonomy of Late Miocene hominoids from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)', Journal of Human Evolution, 63, 1, p.
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Analyzing variability in the location of gross anatomical landmarks, like sulci, is an accepted method for studying evolutionary hominin brain reorganization. Notably, the position of the lunate sulcus in the occipital lobe has been studied in humans, early hominin endocasts, apes, and other monkey species by researchers seeking to make inferences about the morphological evolution of brain regions associated with human visual versus cognitive behaviors. However, some scientists remain skeptical about whether the lunate sulcus is a valid and reliable indicator for studying volumetric changes in the V1 due to the inconsistencies of the sulcus’ presence and lack of histological correspondence with cytoarchitectonic boundaries in hominoids. Despite this, previous allometry studies have suggested that the lunate sulcus shifts from a lateral-anterior to a medial-posterior position as brain size increases.
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Oreopithecus (from the Greek , and , , meaning "hill-ape") is an extinct genus of hominoid primate from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed nine to seven million years ago in the Tusco-Sardinian area when this region was an isolated island in a chain of islands stretching from central Europe to northern Africa in what was becoming the Mediterranean Sea. Oreopithecus was one of many European immigrants that settled this area in the Vallesian–Turolian transition and one of few hominoids, together with Sivapithecus in Asia, to survive the so-called Vallesian Crisis. To date, dozens of individuals have been discovered at the Tuscan localities of Montebamboli, Montemassi, Casteani, Ribolla, and, most notably, in the fossil-rich lignite mine in the Baccinello Basin, making it one of the best-represented fossil apes.
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The genus Homo evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa several million years ago, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids (great apes) branch of the primates. Modern humans, specifically the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000–60,000 years ago,Paul Rincon Humans 'left Africa much earlier' BBC News, 27 January 2011 Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280.Family tree showing the extant hominoids: humans (genus Homo), chimpanzees and bonobos (genus Pan), gorillas (genus Gorilla), orangutans (genus Pongo), and gibbons (four genera of the family Hylobatidae: Hylobates, Hoolock, Nomascus, and Symphalangus). All except gibbons are hominids.
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The most recent of these far-flung Miocene apes (hominoids) is Oreopithecus, from the fossil-rich coal beds in northern Italy and dated to 9 million years ago. Molecular evidence indicates that the lineage of gibbons (family Hylobatidae), the lesser apes, diverged from that of the great apes some 18–12 million years ago, and that of orangutans (subfamily Ponginae) diverged from the other great apes at about 12 million years. There are no fossils that clearly document the ancestry of gibbons, which may have originated in a still-unknown South East Asian hominoid population; but fossil proto-orangutans, dated to around 10 million years ago, may be represented by Sivapithecus from India and Griphopithecus from Turkey. A reconstruction of a female Australopithecus afarensis (National Museum of Natural History) Species close to the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans may be represented by Nakalipithecus fossils found in Kenya and Ouranopithecus found in Greece.
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Makwalo & Makalali, arrived in 1999 In 1990, the ZooParc welcomed its first lions. In 1991, Beauval presented his first white tigers, Gorby and Raïssa, purchased for $100,000 from Robert Baudy, owner of the Rare Feline Breeding Center, a wildcat breeding based in Center Hill, Florida, in the United States. They are supposedly of the Siberian tiger subspecies, with some hybridization, probably of the Bengal tiger subspecies. Although they are not the first white tigers to be presented in Europe, they are unique in France at the time of their arrival in Beauval, which will make the zoo known and attract many visitors. In that year, the number of admissions went from 70,000 to 150,000. In 1992, the zoo opened its first greenhouse, the tropical greenhouse for great apes. There are installed two groups of hominoids, Bornean orangutans and chimpanzees, with two outer islands of 1,100 m2 and 1,300 m2 respectively. Françoise Delord acquired that year a female chimpanzee from a circus, for 10,000 francs.
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