Parapresbytis eohanuman: the northernmost colobine monkey from the Pliocene of Transbaikalia

Abstract

Parapresbytis eohanuman (Borissoglebskaya, 1981) is the northernmost colobine monkey discovered from the middle to late Pliocene sediments in Transbaikal area, southern Siberia. Although most of the specimens are isolated teeth, three premaxillary/maxillary fragments, some cranial fragments, and two nearly complete mandibles are also included. Some researchers regard it the close relative to Dolichopithecus, the Pliocene colobines in Europe, while others insist that it is an ancestral taxon of Rhinopithecus, snubnosed monkey, which is presently distributed in southern China and northern Vietnam. However, the phyletic position of P. eohanuman has not yet been established because of the scarcity of fossil evidences in the northern East Asia in the Late Pliocene.