PROBE ON THE CHINESE ORIGIN OF GIBBONS (HYLOBATES)
MA Shilai
1997, 17(1):
13-23.
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Gibbons (Hylobatidae) are a higher primate animals, also called lower apes. They are only living in southeast Asia now. The gibbons’originated area, in the past, had been considered in Easthern Africa or Europe by what is called“the early finding of its’fossils (as Propliopithecus, Aeolopithecus, Limnopithecus and Pliopithecus ) in there”. Both Limnopithecus and Pliopithecus have been regarded as the ancestry of extant genus (Hylobates) for a long time. But some of Palaeon to logists, recently, feel that there are many queries about the question (Li Chuankui, 1978; Wu Rukang et al. , 1985; Gu Yumin, 1986). Their study give out a clue to the Asian origin of the extan thilobatids. In th is paper, according to geographical and historical distribution ( see Table 1,Fig. 1 and Ma S. et al. , 1994) of Chinese fossil gibbons and living species of hylobatids (especialy the Blackcrested gibbon——Hylobates concolor) , the author advance a new hypothesis that the origin place of the hylobatids ( including Hylobates ) maybe is in southern China of Asia neither in southeast Africa nor in Europe and that the Blackcrested gibbon (Hylobates concolor) is a key species so lving the problem. The reasons are as follows: 1. In Asia, especialy in Chinese coutinent, the species or genus of fossil gibbons not only found more and more but also distributed wide, which are included Pliopithecus of Middle Miocene ( in Tongxin, Ningxia ) and Late Miocene ( in Sivalik, India ) ; Dionypithecus shuangouensis of Late Miocene in Sihong, Jiangsu; and Laccopithecus robustus of Late Miocene in Lufeng, Yunnan and so on. After two species similar to their ancestral type, each of them separately close to Hylobates leuciscus found in Java and Hylobates concolor discovered in southern China. 2. In spite of there are an exchange of animal group between Asia with Africa in Early Miocene to Middle Miocene, but the region from Turkey to westhern Asia was changed a open grasslands in the period of Late Miocene so that it is imporsible to the migrating and spreading of the rigid tree-habited adaptional gibbon. On the other hand,in Asia havn’t discovered Limnopithecus, also Pliopithecus, Dionysopithecus shuang ouensis, Laccopithecus robustus and Dianopithecus progressus all are not in Africa. 3. Pliopithecus is a very understanding apes for Neogene Period in Europe. It is realy existent that it had been discovered in Asia. This fact shows that there are some exchanges of animal groups between Europe and Asia, but the fossil gibbon of the ancenstry type (Dionysopithecus shuangouensis or Laccopithecus robustus and Dianopithecus progressus hasn’t been found in Europe until now , so that Europe is looked upon as the originated area of hilobatids is also unbelievable. 4. Living 11 species of gibbons all are in southeast Asia and not in Africa or Europe. This objective distributed state disproof that Asia is originally the native place of the gibbon in world on the one hand and southeast Asia is to split up center of Hylobates genus on the other. 5. The Black-crested gibbon (Hylobates concolor) is not only the originatest extant species generally acknowledged, by [well-developed primitive cingulum on the lingual aspect of the upper molars (Gu Yumin, 1986, 1996) , with maximum chromosome numbers (2n= 52) Groves, 1989] , averaged social group size are for 416～513 individuals (range= 3～7, and there are 9 to 13 in the greatest group ) , with 100～500 hm2 of territorial range at least, 1 800～ 2 700 m of habited altitude, and both monogamy or polygamy are combined in a social group etc. (Ma Shilai, 1993) ], but also its’phylogenetic relation ship is lying between the directly-related ancestry and other species of Hylobates. Simultaneously, this species’20 fossil sites are only found in China, and now it is also main lyhabiting with in Chinese boundaries of it s’ancestry used to live. To sum up , the gibbons of Hylobates maybe is developed from Dionysopithecus shuangouensis found in southeast China, or more possible by Laccopithecus robustus and Dianopithecus progressus discovered inYunnan of southeast China evolved to the Black-crested gibbon (Hylobates concolor) via a unknown middle link of Late Miocene to the period of Pliocene.
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