Evolutionary history of the Cercopithecidae

Abstract

The application of cladistic methods (especially a concentration on shared derived rather than ancestral characters) permits the distinction of four dental and two cranial morphocytes among the Cercopithecidae. Comparison with fossils suggests that the Fayum parapithecids are not specially related to the Old World monkeys, while other undoubted Fayum 'hominoids' may share derived features with monkeys. Miocene Victoriapithecus 'species' may document a stage very close to the split between Colobinae and Cercopithecinae. Later African colobines appear to form a monophyletic group, more arboreal than the extinct European branch; Asian forms may be specially related to the latter. Among the Cercopithecinae, after a Miocene separation from the high-forest Cercopithecini, the Papionini divided into three groups: geladas, sub-Saharan Papio-related 'baboons' and Mediterranean-Eurasian macaque relatives; each of these underwent Plio-Pleistocene adaptive radiations and subsequent taxonomic diminution.