Kapi (mammal)
| Kapi Temporal range: Miocene,
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Superfamily: | †Pliopithecoidea |
| Genus: | †Kapi Gilbert et al., 2020 |
| Species: | †K. ramnagarensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Kapi ramnagarensis Gilbert et al., 2020
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Kapi is an extinct primate genus that lived in northern India about 13.8 to 12.5 million years ago during the Miocene.[1][2] The only species, K. ramnagarensis, was described in 2020 and is known from a complete lower molar.[3] The fossil was discovered in 2015 from Ramnagar, a town in Jammu and Kashmir, for which the species name was created.[4] Though originally identified as member of the gibbons and popularised in the news as the oldest gibbon,[1] it was later reassessed as a pliopithecoid, a group of extinct Old World monkeys.[5]
Discovery
[edit]American palaeontologists led by Christopher Gilbert, from the Hunter College of the City University of New York and the American Museum of Natural History, and Indian scientists, Ningthoujam Premjit Singh and Rajeev Patnaik, both from Panjab University, explored the Lower Siwaliks of Ramnagar in Jammu and Kashmir since 2010.[6] A number of animal fossils were collected but the most important was a lower jaw bone (mandible) with three molar teeth attached to it which was found in 2014.[7] The fossil was identified as that of a hitherto primate and was named in 2017 as Ramadapis sahnii.[6][8]
The team took further exploration of the same area in 2015. One day, as the team took rest, Gilbert noticed a shiny object among a pile of dirt on the ground.[9] As he dug up, the object was a molar tooth, as he reported, "We knew immediately it was a primate tooth, but it did not look like the tooth of any of the primates previously found in the area."[7] However, the identification was difficult and only after five years, they were able to identify it as belonging to extinct gibbons. They reported the discovery in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 8 September 2020.[3]
Etymology
[edit]The generic name Kapi is from the Hindi term for a monkey or ape.[3] The specific name is after Ramnagar, where the type specimen was found.[3]
Features
[edit]Kapi is known only from a single tooth. The specimen is a right lower third molar. It shows low crown and generally smaller and narrower than those of other gibbons. The tooth structure indicates that it was a fruit-eating primate.[3]
Reassessment
[edit]The original report concluded that "if one considersYuanmoupithecus a stem hylobatid, Kapi is equally if not more likely to be one as well, making it the earliest known hylobatid in the fossil record."[3] Yuanmoupithecus is a gibbon fossil discovered from China in 2006,[10] dated to 6 to 8 million years old.[11] Better fossils were later discovered and reanalysed in 2022 which supported reclassification of Kapi as a pliopithecoid.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Bower, Bruce (8 September 2020). "A stray molar is the oldest known fossil from an ancient gibbon - Ancestors of these small-bodied apes were in India roughly 13 million years ago, a study suggests". Science News. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ a b Ji, Xueping; Harrison, Terry; Zhang, Yingqi; Wu, Yun; Zhang, Chunxia; Hu, Jinming; Wu, Dongdong; Hou, Yemao; Li, Song; Wang, Guofu; Wang, Zhenzhen (2022). "The earliest hylobatid from the Late Miocene of China". Journal of Human Evolution. 171: 103251. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103251. ISSN 0047-2484. PMID 36113226.
- ^ a b c d e f Gilbert, Christopher C.; Ortiz, Alejandra; Pugh, Kelsey D.; Campisano, Christopher J.; Patel, Biren A.; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Fleagle, John G.; Patnaik, Rajeev (9 September 2020). "New Middle Miocene Ape (Primates: Hylobatidae) from Ramnagar, India fills major gaps in the hominoid fossil record". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 287 (1934): 2020.1655. doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1655. PMC 7542791. PMID 32900315. S2CID 221538516.
- ^ "13-Million-Year-Old Gibbon Ancestor Discovered in India | Sci.News". SciNews. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
- ^ de Vries, Dorien; Beck, Robin (2023). "Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences". Palaeontologia Electronica: 26.1.a8. doi:10.26879/1249.
- ^ a b Gilbert, Christopher C.; Patel, Biren A.; Singh, N. Premjit; Campisano, Christopher J.; Fleagle, John G.; Rust, Kathleen L.; Patnaik, Rajeev (2017). "New sivaladapid primate from Lower Siwalik deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir State), India". Journal of Human Evolution. 102: 21–41. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.10.001. ISSN 1095-8606. PMID 28012462.
- ^ a b "New fossil ape discovered in India". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
- ^ California, University of Southern. "Newfound primate teeth take a big bite out of the evolutionary tree of life". phys.org. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
- ^ "13-million-year-old fossil ape discovered in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur". The New Indian Express. 10 September 2020. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
- ^ Dong, Wei; Qi, Guo-qin (2013-01-31), Wang, Xiaoming; Flynn, Lawrence J.; Fortelius, Mikael (eds.), "Chapter 11. Hominoid- Producing Localities and Biostratigraphy in Yunnan", Fossil Mammals of Asia, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, pp. 293–313, doi:10.7312/wang15012-011, ISBN 978-0-231-52082-9, retrieved 2023-11-10
- ^ Harrison, Terry (2016), Reichard, Ulrich H.; Hirai, Hirohisa; Barelli, Claudia (eds.), "The Fossil Record and Evolutionary History of Hylobatids", Evolution of Gibbons and Siamang: Phylogeny, Morphology, and Cognition, Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, New York, NY: Springer, pp. 91–110, doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-5614-2_4, ISBN 978-1-4939-5614-2, retrieved 2023-11-10
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