Salvador Moyà-Solà

• Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont

The phylogenetic relationships of the small-bodied catarrhine Pliobates cataloniae (~11.6 Ma, NE Iberian Peninsula) have been controversial since its original description. However, the recent report of additional dentognathic remains has supported its crouzeliid pliopithecoid status. Based on the available hypodigm, the molar enameledentine junctio...

The systematic status of the small-bodied catarrhine primate Pliobates cataloniae, from the Miocene (11.6 Ma) of Spain, is controversial because it displays a mosaic of primitive and derived features compared with extant hominoids (apes and humans). Cladistic analyses have recovered Pliobates as either a stem hominoid or as a pliopithecoid stem cat...

Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (~12 million years ago, northeastern Spain) is key to understanding the mosaic nature of hominid (great ape and human) evolution. Notably, its skeleton indicates that an orthograde (upright) body plan preceded suspensory adaptations in hominid evolution. However, there is ongoing debate about this species, partly becaus...

The Island Syndrome describes morphological, behavioral, and life history traits that evolve in parallel in endemic insular organisms. A basic axiom of the Island Syndrome is that insular endemics slow down their pace of life. Although this is already confirmed for insular dwarfs, a slow life history in giants may not be adaptive, but merely a cons...

This eLetter was originally submitted in a more detailed version (900 words + figure) as 'Technical Comment' on Rozzi et al. (Science 379, 1054-1058 2023). However, Science suppressed this format just a week before our submission. Reduced to a 'Letter' format (300 words) it was rejected as Science 'reserves printed letters for subjects of great in...

We describe the first endemic large mammal from the Neogene of the Island Eivissa (Balearic Islands, Spain), a new genus and species of an endemic insular bovid, Ebusia n. gen. moralesi n. sp. (Artiodactyla, Caprini). This new taxon is the smallest caprine currently described and shows primitive, continental-like complete dentition. It has a long a...

Pliobates cataloniae is a small-bodied catarrhine (~4–5 kg) from the Miocene of NE Iberian Peninsula. Originally this species was recovered by a cladistic analysis as a stem hominoid showing a mixture of primitive (stem catarrhine-like) and derived (modern hominoid-like) craniodental and postcranial features (Alba et al., 2015 ). Later on, this tax...

Phylogenetic hypotheses about the Miocene small-bodied catarrhine Pliobates cataloniae (11.6 Ma, NE Iberian Peninsula) consider it a stem hominoid, a pliopithecoid, or a dendropithecid. Given the phylogenetic signal carried by semicircular canals, we compared their morphology in Pliobates with that of extant and fossil anthropoids using deformation...

Els Casots is one of the richest fossil vertebrate sites of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, Spain). It was discovered in 1989 and excavated briefly during the 1990s, resulting in the recovery of thousands of remains and the erection of several new mammal species. Excavations were resumed in 2018 and continue to date. Here we provide updated re...

The 1-m-tall dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon falconeri from the Pleistocene of Sicily (Italy) is an extreme example of insular dwarfism and epitomizes the Island Rule. Based on scaling of life-history (LH) traits with body mass, P. falconeri is widely considered to be ‘r-selected’ by truncation of the growth period, associated with an early onset of r...

The small-bodied Miocene catarrhine Pliobates cataloniae (11.6 Ma, Spain) displays a mosaic of catarrhine symplesiomorphies and hominoid synapomorphies that hinders deciphering its phylogenetic relationships. Based on cladistic analyses, it has been interpreted as a stem hominoid or as a pliopithecoid. Intriguingly, the carotid canal orientation of...

Pliopithecoids are a diverse group of Miocene catarrhine primates from Eurasia. Their positional behavior is still unknown, and many species are known exclusively from dentognathic remains. Here, we describe a proximal radius (IPS66267) from the late Miocene of Castell de Barberà (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula) that represents the firs...

A distinctive ancestor There has been much focus on the evolution of primates and especially where and how humans diverged in this process. It has often been suggested that the last common ancestor between humans and other apes, especially our closest relative, the chimpanzee, was ape- or chimp-like. Almécija et al. review this area and conclude th...

Pliopithecoids are an extinct group of catarrhine primates from the Miocene of Eurasia. More than 50 years ago, they were linked to hylobatids due to some morphological similarities, but most subsequent studies have supported a stem catarrhine status, due to the retention of multiple plesiomorphic features (e.g., the ectotympanic morphology) relati...

Significance Reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of extinct apes is challenging due to their fragmentary fossil record and the recurrent independent evolution of morphological features. Given the relevance of the phylogenetic signal of the bony labyrinth, here we assess the phylogenetic affinities of the late Miocene great apes Hispanopit...

Nieves was born in Burgos on February 5th, 1949 and passed away, much too soon, on December 15th, 2010. She studied at Madrid’s Complutense University (UCM) from which she graduated with a degree in Biological Science in 1970 and there she met Professor Emiliano Aguirre. When he suggested starting a research project on lagomorphs (pikas, rabbits an...

During the last decade, field work carried out in the lower Eocene deposits of the Àger Basin (southern Pyrenean basins, northeast Spain) has allowed the publication of new early primate material, including the first identification of plesiadapiform remains in Spain (Arcius ilerdensis from Masia de l’Hereuet) and the description of two new species...

Phylogenetic relationships among extinct hominoids (apes and humans) are controversial due to pervasive homoplasy and the incompleteness of the fossil record. The bony labyrinth might contribute to this debate, as it displays strong phylogenetic signal among other mammals. However, the potential of the vestibular apparatus for phylogenetic reconstr...

We describe the first known navicular bones for an Eocene euprimate from Europe and assess their implications for early patterns of locomotor evolution in primates. Recovered from the fossil site of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà-3C (Barcelona, Spain), the naviculars are attributed to Anchomomys frontanyensis. The small size of A. frontanyensis allows us...

Although extensive research has been carried out in recent years on the origin and evolution of human bipedalism, a full understanding of this question is far from settled. Miocene hominoids are key to a better understanding of the locomotor types observed in living apes and humans. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, an extinct stem great ape from the m...

Oreopithecus bambolii (8.3–6.7 million years old) is the latest known hominoid from Europe, dating to approximately the divergence time of the Pan -hominin lineages. Despite being the most complete nonhominin hominoid in the fossil record, the O. bambolii skeleton IGF 11778 has been, for decades, at the center of intense debate regarding the specie...

Only a few postcranial remains have been assigned to the Miocene great ape Dryopithecus fontani, leading to uncertainties in the reconstruction of its overall body plan and positional behavior. Here we shed light on the locomotor repertoire of this species through the study of the femoral neck cortical bone (FNCB) distribution of IPS41724, a partia...

Castell de Barbera�, located in the Valle�s-Penede�s Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula), is one of the few European sites where pliopithecoids (Barberapithecus) and hominoids (cf. Dryopithecus) co-occur. The dating of this Miocene site has proven controversial. A latest Aragonian (MN7þ8, ca. 11.88e11.18 Ma) age was long accepted by most authors, despite...

We describe new specimens of the Miocene moschid Hispanomeryx, from the early Vallesian sites of Castell de Barberà (CB) and Ecoparc de Can Mata (ECM), Vallès-Penedès Basin, representing the first Iberian record of Hispanomeryx outside the inner Miocene basins. Fossils from ECM constitute Hispanomeryx lacetanus, sp. nov., the first Hispanomeryx to...

The Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) (ca. 1.4–0.4 Ma) represents a fundamental transformation in the Earth's climate state, starting at 1.4 Ma with a progressive increase in the amplitude of climatic oscillations and the establishment of strong asymmetry in global ice volume cycles. The progressive shift from a 41kyr–100kyr orbital rhythm...

The scarce primate remains from the late Eocene locality of Roc de Santa (Central Pyrenees, NE Spain) were first documented in 1975. This material included a mandibular fragment with P3-M2 and a maxillary fragment with P3-M3 assigned to Adapis magnus (later transferred to the genus Leptadapis), and an isolated M3 attributed to Necrolemur antiquus....

In the Iberian Peninsula, Miocene apes (Hominoidea) are generally rare and mostly restricted to the Vallès-Penedès Basin. Here we report a new hominoid maxillary fragment with M2 from this basin. It was surface-collected in March 2017 from the site of Can Pallars i Llobateres (CPL, Sant Quirze del Vallès), where fossil apes had not been previously...

Objectives: High-resolution imaging of fossils with X-ray computed microtomography (lCT) has become a very powerful tool in paleontological research. However, fossilized bone, embedding matrix, and dental tissues do not always provide a distinct structural signal with X-rays. We demonstrate the benefits of high-resolution neutron radiation in three...

New material attributed to Agerinia smithorum from Casa Retjo-1 (early Eocene, NE Iberian Peninsula), consisting of 13 isolated teeth and a fragment of calcaneus, is studied in this work. These fossils allow the first description of the calcaneus and the upper premolars for the genus Agerinia, as well as the first description of the P2 and M2 for A...

The chronology of the first human dispersal out of Africa and the ecological role of the genus Homo in Europe as a scavenger or an active hunter during the late Early Pleistocene are two of the paleoanthropological topics most hotly debated during the last decades. The earliest human occurrences in Western Europe are recorded in the Iberian Peninsu...

Epipliopithecus vindobonensis is considered a stem putative catarrhine that has been placed within the Pliopithecinae. Several skeletons and isolated remains belonging to at least three individuals were found at the beginning of the 20th century in Děvínská Nová Ves (Slovakia) and dated in the early Middle Miocene. Apart from the first descriptive...

Background The Eocene was the warmest epoch of the Cenozoic and recorded the appearance of several orders of modern mammals, including the first occurrence of Euprimates. During the Eocene, Euprimates were mainly represented by two groups, adapiforms and omomyiforms, which reached great abundance and diversity in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite th...

Constraint tree used for the phylogenetic analyses

List of synapomorphies of different nodes specified in Fig. 9

Character-taxon matrix used for the phylogenetic analyses

The knee plays a central role for primate locomo- tion since it participates in body weight bearing, propulsion and support. Living non-human homi- noids show a versatile knee that allows them to rely on a varied and non-stereotyped set of joint movements during orthograde behaviors. In this regard, studying the Miocene primates becomes essential t...

Pierolapithecus is a Miocene hominoid genus, represented by a single species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, dated to 12 million years ago, which provides the oldest comprehensive evidence of the origin of the distinctive orthograde body plan of extant great apes. Morphological features of the trunk, hand, and hindlimb are functionally related to th...

Several species of the genus Canis (Carnivora: Canidae) have been recorded from the European Early Pleistocene, but the phylogenetic relationships among them and in relation to extant members of this genus are still unclear. This is particularly true for the medium-sized and wolf-like extinct species Canis mosbachensis. It has been considered by ma...

The study of Eocene primates is crucial for understanding the evolutionary steps undergone by the earliest members of our lineage and the relationships between extinct and extant taxa. Recently, the description of new material from Spain has improved knowledge of European Paleogene primates considerably, particularly regarding microchoerines. Here...

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) is a critically endangered felid that, during the last fifty years, has been subject to an intensive conservation program in an attempt to save it from extinction. This species is first recorded at ca. 1.7–1.6 Ma (late Villafranchian, late Early Pleistocene) in NE Iberian Peninsula, roughly coinciding with the large...

The new species Agerinia smithorum (Adapiformes, Primates) from the early Eocene of the Iberian Peninsula is erected in this work. An emended diagnosis of the genus is provided, together with a broad description of the new species and comparisons with other samples assigned to Agerinia and other similar medium-sized cercamoniines. The new species i...

In this work, new dental material of Agerinia roselli from its type locality, Les Saleres (NE Spain), is described. An emended diagnosis of the species is provided, together with a redescription of the entire hypodigm from that locality, which was necessary due to some inaccuracies in previous descriptions. The studied material includes 12 teeth (f...

Natural selection in isolated environments led to the positive selection of species bearing an extraordinary array of morphological traits and a very high grade of endemism. The unbalanced mammal assemblage found in the Upper Miocene karst infillings of the Gargano Peninsula (southern Italy), and especially the intriguing ruminant Hoplitomeryx, is...

The locality of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà (Eastern Pyrenees, Catalonia, northeastern Spain) includes four fossil-bearing levels with an extraordinary abundance of mammal remains, representing the most significant middle Eocene site from the Iberian Peninsula. Despite this, the fauna from this locality has not been studied in detail. Recent work has m...

Objectives: The presence of Microchoerus in Sant Cugat de Gavadons (Late Eocene, Ebro Basin, Northeastern Spain) was first noted by M. Crusafont, who described a fragment of maxilla with two teeth that he interpreted as P(4) and M(1) and referred this specimen to the species Microchoerus ornatus. The objective of this work is to study in detail th...

Meet your gibbon cousin Apes are divided into two groups: larger-bodied apes, or hominoids, such as humans, chimps, and gorillas; and smaller-bodied hylobatids, such as gibbons. These two lineages are thought to have diverged rather cleanly, sharing few similarities after the emergence of crown hominoids. Alba et al. describe a new ape from the Mio...

The land mammal record of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, NE Spain) ranges fromthe early Miocene (Ramblian) to the late Miocene (Turolian), that is from about 20 to 7 Ma.Here we present an updated review of the mammal succession focusing on biochronologyas well as on environmental and faunal changes. Based on faunal similarities with centralEu...

Objectives The material of Necrolemur (Microchoerinae, Omomyidae, Primates) from the Middle Eocene (Robiacian) locality of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà (Eastern Pyrenees) is described. This is the first confirmable record of this genus from Spain.MethodsA mandible fragment bearing P4-M3 and 15 isolated teeth have been carefully described and compared wi...

Skinner and colleagues (Research Article, 23 January 2015, p. 395), based on metacarpal trabecular bone structure, argue that Australopithecus africanus employed human-like dexterity for stone tool making and use 3 million years ago. However, their evolutionary and biological assumptions are misinformed, failing to refute the previously existing hy...

The species Pseudoloris parvulus, identified in several Middle and Late Eocene European sites, was previously known in the Iberian Peninsula by a single mandible preserving P4-M3 from Sossís (Southern Pyrenean Basins, northeastern Spain), described in the 1960s. Further field work at this Late Eocene site has led to the recovery of a large number o...

Miocene apes display a mosaic of primitive and derived hominoid features conferring them a body plan with no modern locomotor analogs. Thus, the external morphology of the proximal femur in available fossil apes most closely approaches the extant ape condition. However, femoral mechanical properties and internal structure in extinct apes are less w...

Given the central adaptive role of diet, paleodietary inference is essential for understanding the relationship between evolutionary and paleoenvironmental change. Here we rely on dental microwear analysis to investigate the role of dietary specialization in the diversification and extinction of Miocene hominoids from Western Eurasian between 14 an...

Oreopithecus bambolii is a Late Miocene ape from Italy, first described in the late 19th century. Its interpretation is still highly controversial, especially in reference to its hand proportions and thumb morphology. In this study, the authors provide detailed descriptions of the available Oreopithecus pollical distal phalanx (PDP) specimens, as w...

The mosaic nature of the Miocene ape postcranium hinders the reconstruction of the positional behavior and locomotion of these taxa based on isolated elements only. The fossil great ape Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (IPS 21350 skeleton; 11.9 Ma) exhibits a relatively wide and shallow thorax with moderate hand length and phalangeal curvature, dorsall...

The island rule entails a modification of the body size of insular mammals, a character related with numerous biological and ecological variables. From the Miocene to human colonization (Holocene), Mediterranean and Canary Islands were unaltered natural ecosystems, with paleofaunas formed with endemic giant rodents among other mammals. Our aim is t...

During the last decade, new discoveries in several Iberian basins, together with the description of previously unpublished finds, have significantly increased the recorded paleodiversity of fossil Primates (Mammalia: Euarchonta) in the Iberian Peninsula. Here we provide an updated compendium of the primate fossil record in Iberia during the Cenozoi...

De nouveaux restes dentaires d’un Tragulidé de la localité de la fin du Miocène inférieur (16,5 à 16,3 Ma, MN4) d’Els Casots (bassin de Vallès-Penedès, Catalogne, Espagne) sont décrits ici. Cet échantillon correspond bien, en termes de taille et de morphologie occlusale, au matériau de Dorcatherium crassum de la localité type (Sansan, France ; MN6)...

Orrorin tugenensis (Kenya, ca. 6 Ma) is one of the earliest putative hominins. Its proximal femur, BAR 1002'00, was originally described as being very human-like, although later multivariate analyses showed an australopith pattern. However, some of its traits (for example, laterally protruding greater trochanter, medially oriented lesser trochanter...

Available remains of the barbourofelin Albanosmilus jourdani from the Middle to Late Miocene of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) are described. In addition to the dentognathic remains described by previous authors, the new material includes a complete cranium, a calvarium and several mandibles from Abocador de Can Mata, Creu Conill 2...

Keywords: Late Miocene, Vallesian Crisis, biodiversity hotspot, sampling bias, faunal turnover

The two hominoid teeth-a central upper incisor (NMB G.a.9.) and an upper molar (FSL 213981)-from the Middle Miocene site of La Grive-Saint-Alban (France) have been traditionally attributed to Dryopithecus fontani (Hominidae: Dryopithecinae). However, during the last decade discoveries in the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Spain) have shown that several homi...

Pliopithecinae and Crouzeliinae (Primates: Pliopithecidae) are distinguished dentally by the sharper crests, more compressed cusps, larger foveae, and narrower molars of the latter. Traditionally, such differences were qualitatively related to increased folivory in crouzeliines. This was subsequently disproved by microwear and shearing crest analys...

Quantifying the kinematics of the patella is essential for understanding the role of the knee joint in locomotion, but also a challenge due to the complexity of function of the muscles and ligaments around the joint. Previous studies focusing on the human knee have postulated two different biomechanical models for the patella, the short-beam and th...

The species Pseudoloris reguanti (Microchoerinae, Omomyidae, Primates) was described by Miquel Crusafont-Pairó in 1967, based on a single lower molar from the Late Eocene Spanish site Sant Cugat de Gavadons. Sometime later, the holotype and unique material of P. reguanti was lost from the collections of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel C...

A new genus and species attributed to the tribe Anchomomyini is described from the early Late Eocene locality of Sossís (MP17a), one of the most important Paleogene fossil sites from the Iberian Peninsula. Nievesia sossisensis is characterized by its buccolingually compressed P(4) and its upper molars with no pericone, medium-sized hypocone, straig...