Comparative genomic analyses of primates offer considerable potential to define and understand the processes that mold, shape, and transform the human genome. However, primate taxonomy is both complex and controversial, with marginal unifying consensus of the evolutionary hierarchy of extant primate species. Here we provide new genomic sequence (,8 Mb) from 186 primates representing 61 (,90%) of the described genera, and we include outgroup species from Dermoptera, Scandentia, and Lagomorpha. The resultant phylogeny is exceptionally robust and illuminates events in primate evolution from ancient to recent, clarifying numerous taxonomic controversies and providing new data on human evolution. Ongoing speciation, reticulate evolution, ancient relic lineages, unequal rates of evolution, and disparate distributions of insertions/deletions among the reconstructed primate lineages are uncovered. Our resolution of the primate phylogeny provides an essential evolutionary framework with far-reaching applications including: human selection and adaptation, global emergence of zoonotic diseases, mammalian comparative genomics, primate taxonomy, and conservation of endangered species.

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A Molecular Phylogeny of Living Primates

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Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health. Current information shows the existence of 504 species in 79 genera distributed in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Alarmingly, ~60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and ~75% have declining populations. This situation is the result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats—mainly global and local market demands, leading to extensive habitat loss through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks in primate range regions. Other important drivers are increased bushmeat hunting and the illegal trade of primates as pets and primate body parts, along with emerging threats, such as climate change and anthroponotic diseases. Often, these pressures act in synergy, exacerbating primate population declines. Given that primate range regions overlap extensively with a large, and rapidly growing, human population characterized by high levels of poverty, global attention is needed immediately to reverse the looming risk of primate extinctions and to attend to local human needs in sustainable ways. Raising global scientific and public awareness of the plight of the world’s primates and the costs of their loss to ecosystem health and human society is imperative.

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Impending extinction crisis of the world's primates: why primates matter

The Evolution of Language

Neural pathways underlying vocal control.

In the foreseeable future there is little likelihood of achieving consensus on the number of Asian primate genera and species, and their subspecific composition. There is a more realistic hope of reaching agreement on the number of recognizable subspecies. The latter objective is more urgent because in order to reliably assess generic and specific numbers, it is essential that effective conservation measures are implemented for as many subspecies as possible. This cannot be comprehensively accomplished until their validity is assessed and they are satisfactorily established and defined. The Asian primate classification that we present is the outcome of electronic communication among the co-authors after a workshop, which was especially convened to attempt to determine the number of recognizable primate subspecies and to identify potentially recognizable subspecies. The generic and specific arrangement is a compromise that does not necessarily reflect the individual views of the co-authors: 183 subspecies in 77 species in 16 genera. The 31 subspecies allotted a low credibility rating are almost balanced by the 22 scientifically unnamed populations that may warrant subspecific status.

Asian primate classification

Unlike the great apes and most other primates, all species of gibbons are known to produce elaborate, species-specific and sex-specific patterns of vocalisation usually referred to as "songs". In most, but not all, species, mated pairs may characteristically combine their songs in a relatively rigid pattern to produce coordinated duet songs. Previous studies disagree on whether duetting or the absence of duetting represented the primitive condition in gibbons. The present study compares singing behaviour in all gibbon species. Various vocal characteristics were subjected to a phylogenetic analysis using previously published phylogenetic trees of the gibbon radiation as a framework. Variables included the degree of sex-specificity of the vocal repertoire, the occurrence of solo songs, and the preference for a specific time of day for song-production. The results suggest the following scenario for the evolution of gibbon songs: (1) The last common ancestor of recent gibbons produced duet songs. (2) Gibbon duets probably evolved from a song which was common to both sexes and which only later became separated into male-specific and female-specific parts (song-splitting theory). (3) A process tentatively called "duet-splitting" is suggested to have led secondarily from a duetting species to a non-duetting species, in that the contributions of the pair-partners split into temporally segregated solo songs. This appears to be the first time that a non-duetting animal can be shown to be derived from a duetting form. (4) The return to exclusive solo singing may be related to the isolated island distribution of the non-duetting species.

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Duet‐splitting and the evolution of gibbon songs

http://www.gibbons.de/main/papers/pdf_files/2000geissmann&orgeldinger.pdf

The relationship between duet songs and pair bonds in siamangs, Hylobates syndactylus

The status of East Asian primate taxa was reassessed for the IUCN Red List at a workshop held from September 8 12, 2006, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This paper presents the results for the gibbons or small apes, and summarizes the resulting new information on their taxonomy, geographic range, population size, major threats, conservation measures, and conservation status using IUCN Red List categories and criteria. A comparison of the new assessment with the previous ones of 2000 (or 2003 for two gibbon species) reveals that 10 of 16 species and 9 of 12 subspecies – i.e. 86% of all gibbon taxa – have become more endangered within the last three to six years by at least one category of threat, and 39% of all gibbon taxa by two categories.

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Status reassessment of the gibbons: Results of the Asian Primate Red List Workshop 2006

http://www.gibbons.de/main/papers/pdf_files/2001molphylogenroos.pdf

Thomas Geissmann

Papers

Asian primate classification

Duet‐splitting and the evolution of gibbon songs

The relationship between duet songs and pair bonds in siamangs, Hylobates syndactylus

Status reassessment of the gibbons: Results of the Asian Primate Red List Workshop 2006

Molecular Phylogeny of the Major Hylobatid Divisions