Small, odd and old: The mysteriousTarsius pumilusis the most basal Sulawesi tarsier

Abstract

In this study, we present the first genetic evidence of the phylogenetic position ofTarsius pumilus,the mountain tarsier of Sulawesi, Indonesia.This mysterious primate is the only Eastern tarsier species that occurs exclusively in cloud forests above 1800 m.a.s.l. It exhibits striking morphological peculiarities—most prominently its extremely reduced body size, which led to the common name of ‘pygmy tarsier’. However, our results indicate thatT. pumilusis not an aberrant form of a lowland tarsier, but in fact, the most basal of all Sulawesi tarsiers. Applying a Bayesian multi-locus coalescent approach, we dated the divergence between theT. pumiluslineage and the ancestor of all other extant Sulawesi tarsiers to 9.88 Mya. This is as deep as the split between the two other tarsier generaCarlito(Philippine tarsiers) andCephalopachus(Western tarsiers), and predates further tarsier diversification on Sulawesi by around 7 Myr. The date coincides with the deepening of the marine environment between eastern and western Sulawesi, which likely led to allopatric speciation betweenT. pumilusor its predecessor in the west and the ancestor of all other Sulawesi tarsiers in the east. As the split preceded the emergence of permanent mountains in western Sulawesi, it is unlikely that the shift to montane habitat has driven the formation of theT. pumiluslineage.