Primate paleoecology

Abstract

Abstract Primates originated in a “hot-house” world of widespread rainforests. Plesiadapiform primates thrived during the Paleocene but died out when arboreal rodents won their niches. Euprimates radiated during the Eocene, which ended in a period of global cooling ~40–34 Ma. The resulting deforestation reduced primate habitats and increased competition for arboreal resources. The abrupt global cooling that initiated the Oligocene, ~34 Ma, exacerbated deforestation at temperate latitudes and caused food production to become seasonal and volatile. Afterward, anthropoids became larger animals that foraged diurnally over an extensive home range, initially as slow arboreal quadrupeds. Hominoids appeared ~26–23 Ma and diversified ~17–15 Ma during a warm period. Global cooling resumed ~14–9 Ma, which caused more deforestation and the extinction of many ape species. As hominoid diversity waned, cercopithecoids and platyrrhines radiated. During the Plio-Pleistocene, both cercopithecoids and hominins exploited the open habitats that replaced forests.