ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF ASIAN HOMINOID PRIMATES - PALEONTOLOGICAL DATA VERSUS MOLECULAR-DATA

The origin and evolution of hominoid primates (apes and man) has long been studied exclusively on the basis of available fossil remains. Ind eed, a migration of African primates towards Asia at about -16 to -17 Ma might have given the lineage of Miocene Asian hominoids. This hypot hesis is supported by the oldest remains of Miocene Asian hominoids da ted at about -16.1 Ma. But the recent discovery of anthropoid primates in the Eocene of Asia seems to indicate that Asia was a major evoluti onary and differentiation centre for anthropoid primates as early as t he Eocene. In addition, Asian primates probably continued to evolve in Asia from the Eocene onward and led at least to the extant Asian homi noids (orangutans and gibbons). African and Asian extant anthropoid pr imates might therefore have diverged at least 36 Ma ago, and this hypo thesis is also supported by the most recent data in molecular biology. Moreover, an Asiatic origin of African Paleogene propliopithecine pri mates is suggested. In that context, evolutionary rates might not be c onstant, and molecular clocks should be necessarily characteristic for each studied group of mammals. Several examples that illustrate the c onflict between paleontological and molecular data are discussed. The necessity to integrate more systematically paleontological data as chr onological reference points in studies in molecular phylogeny is discu ssed. ((C) Academie des sciences/Elsevier, Paris.).