Species, Species Concepts and Primate Evolution

561 Pages·1993·21.75 MB·English

by  Niles Eldredge (auth.)

Species, Species Concepts,
and Primate Evolution
ADVANCES IN PRIMATOWGY
Series Editors:
JOHN G. FLEAGLE
State Umverstty of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, New York
R. D. E. MacPHEE
American Museum of Natural Htstory
New York, New York
Editorial Board:
JOHN M. ALLMAN, Cahfornta Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
RUSSELL L. CIOCHON, Umverstty of Iowa, Iowa Ctty, Iowa
FRAN<;OISE JOUFFROY, Museum National d'Histmre Naturelle, Pans, France
W PATRICK LUCKETI, Umverstty of Puerto Rtco, San Juan, Puerto Rico
LAWRENCE B MARTIN, State UnivefSity of New York at Stony Brook,
Stony Brook, New York
CAREL P. VAN SCHAlK, Duke Umversity, Durham, North Carolina
MOLECULAR ANTHROPOLOGY: Genes and Proteins
in the Evolutionary Ascent of the Primates
Edited by Morris Goodman and Rtchard E. Tashian
SENSORY SYSTEMS OF PRIMATES
Edited by Charles R. Noback
NURSERY CARE OF NONHUMAN PRIMATES
Edited by Gerald C. Ruppenthal
COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS
OF TREE SHREWS
Edited by W. Patrick Luckett
EVOLUTIONARY BIOWGY OF THE NEW WORLD MONKEYS AND
CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Edited by Russell L. Ciochon and A. Brunetto Chiarelli
NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF APE AND HUMAN ANCESTRY
Edited by Russell L. Ciochon and Robert S. Corruccini
SIZE AND SCALING IN PRIMATE BIOWGY
Edited by William L. Jungers
SPECIES, SPECIES CONCEPTS, AND PRIMATE EVOLUTION
Edited by William H. Kimbel and Lawrence B. Martin
A Contmuauon Order Plan LS available for this senes A contmuatJon order wdl bnng dehvery of each
new volume Immediately upon pubhcahon Volumes are billed only upon actual shtpment For further
mfonnahon please contact the pubhsher
Species, Species Concepts,
and Primate Evolution
Edited by
WILLIAM H. KIMBEL
Institute of Human Origins
Berkeley, California
and
LAWRENCE B. MARTIN
State University of New York
Stony Brook, New York
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
L1brary of Congress Cata1og1ng-1n-Pub11cat1on Data
Spectes, spectes concepts, and pr111ate evolutton 1 edtted by Wtlltall
H. Ktmbel and Lawrence B. Marttn.
p. c11. --(Advances tn prtlllatology>
Includes b 1b ltograph 1c a 1 references ( p. > and tndex.
1. Prtlllates--Spec1atton. 2. Spectes. 3. Prllllates--Vartatton.
4. Prtrlates--Evolut1on. I. Ktmbel, Wtl11all H. II. Marttn,
Lawrence. 1955- III. Ser t es.
QL 737. P9S69 1993
599.8"0415--dc20 93-6920
CIP
Cover design by Wendy Martin
ISBN 978-1-4899-3747-6 ISBN 978-1-4899-3745-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-3745-2
© 1993 Springer Science+ Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1993.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1993
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electromc, mechamcal, photocopymg, microfilmmg,
recording, or otherwise, without wntten permission from the Publisher
To the memory of my father,
Philip Kimbel, M.D.
-W. H. K.
To my dear wife, Wendy,
with gratitude for her sacrifices and support
-L. B. M.
Contributors
Gene H. Albrecht C. Dzckznwn
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology Department of Anthropology
University of Southern California University of Chicago
Los Angeles, California 90033 Chicago, Illinois 60637
Niles Eldredge
Peter Andrews Department of Invertebrates
Department of Palaeontology American Museum of Natural History
The Natural History Museum New York, New York 10024
London SW7 5BD
England Cohn P. Groves
Department of Prehistory and
S. Boinsk1 Anthropology
Laboratory of Comparative Ethology Australian National University
National Institutes of Health-Animal Canberra, ACT 2601
Center Australia
Poolesville, Maryland 20837
Terry Harn..son
and
Department of Anthropology Department of Anthropology
University of Florida New York University
Gainesville, Florida 32611 New York, New York 10003
Clifford]. Jolly
Thomas M. Bown Department of Anthropology
Branch of Paleontology and Stratigraphy New York University
U.S. Geological Survey New York, New York 10003
Denver, Colorado 8022.1j
Jay Kelley
Department of Oral Biology
Dana A. Cope College of Dentistry
Department of Sociology and The University of Illinois at Chicago
Anthropology Chicago, Illinois 60612
College of Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina 29424 Wilham H. K1mbel
Institute of Human Origins
Berkeley, California 94 709
Robert K. Costello
Doctoral Program in Anthropology Leonard K nshtalka
The Graduate Center of the City Section of Vertebrate Paleontology
University of New York Carnegie Museum of Natural History
New York, New York 10021 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
vii
viii CONTRIBUTORS
Steven R. Lngh Kenneth D. Rose
Department of Anthropology Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
Northwestern Um\'ersity The Johns Hopkins University School of
Evanston, Illinois 60628 Med1cme
Present address. Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Department of Anatomical Sciences
State University of New York
A. L. Rosenberger
at Stony Brook U.S. National Zoological Park
Stony Brook, New York 11794 Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20008
Lawrence B. Martm
Departments of Anthropology and
Anatomical Sciences Bnan T Shea
State University of New York at Stony Departments of Cell, Molecular and
Brook Structural Biology/ Anthropology
Stony Brook, New York 11794 Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois 60611
J. C. Masters
Population Genetics Laboratory
F redenck S Szalay
Museum of Comparative Zoology
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University Hunter College
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 New York, New York 10021
Present address:
University of the Witwatersrand
Wits 2050, South Africa I an Tattersall
Department of Anthropology
Joseph M. A. Mzller American Museum of Natural History
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology New York, 1\:ew York 10024
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California 90033
M. F. Teaford
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
G. S. Mugazsz
The Johns Hopkms University School of
National Museums of Kenya
MediCine
Nairobi
Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Kenya
.f. M zchael P lavcan A. Walker
Department of Biological Sciences Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
University of Cincinnati The .Johns Hopkins University School of
Cmcinnati, Ohio 45221 Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Yoel Rak
Department of Anatomy
Sackler Faculty of Medicine Bernard Wood
Tel Aviv University Homimd Paleontology Research Group
Tel Aviv Department of Human Anatomy and Cell
Israel Biology
and U mversity of Liverpool
Institute of Human Origms Liverpool L69 3BX
Berkeley, California 94 709 England
Preface
A world of categones devmd of spirit waits for life to return.
Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift
The stock-in-trade of communicating hypotheses about the historical path of
evolution is a graphical representation called a phylogenetic tree. In most such
graphics, pairs of branches diverge from other branches, successively marching
across abstract time toward the present. To each branch is tied a tag with a name,
a binominal symbol that functions as does the name given to an individual
human being. On phylogenetic trees the names symbolize species. What exactly
do these names signify? What kind of information is communicated when we
claim to have knowledge of the following types?
"Tetonius mathewzi was ancestral to Pseudotetonius ambiguus."
"The sample of fossils attributed to Homo habzlis is too variable to contain
only one species."
"Interbreeding populations of savanna baboons all belong to Papio anubis."
"Hylobates lar and H. pileatus interbreed in zones of geographic overlap."
While there is nearly universal agreement that the notion of the speczes is
fundamental to our understanding of how evolution works, there is a very wide
range of opinion on the conceptual content and meaning of such particular
statements regarding species. This is because, oddly enough, evolutionary biolo
gists are quite far from agreement on what a species is, how it attains this status,
and what role it plays in evolution over the long term.
Investigators of the order Primates have devoted considerable research ef
fort to developing knowledge both of the extant primate fauna and of the
paleontological record of primate evolution. In recent years a large (and still
growing) molecular data set bearing on primate phylogenetic relationships down
to the species level has been amassed. In short, primate biologists can boast of
one of the better mammalian data bases for basic research in systematics, popu
lation biology, and paleobiology. However, a look back over the literature on
species and speciation will clearly show that, with a few notable exceptions, such
conceptual issues have not often been of central concern in primate evolutionary
research.
It is only during the past few years that a subtle turn toward introspection
has begun to affect researchers in primate evolutionary biology. There is evi-
ix
X PREFACE
dence of a greater concern for the necessity of grounding our explanations in
well-corroborated phylogenetic hypotheses, a growing appreciation for the im
portance of the historical-narrative aspects of our explanations, and a better
acquaintance with the conceptual underpinnings of the species. It is out of this
ferment that Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution has developed.
In compiling this book, we asked both theoreticians and specialists in one or
another extant or extinct primate group to relate their research explicitly to the
conceptual foundation of the species, as they see it. Our goal was to demonstrate
that many of the debates in primate evolutionary biology today are not resolv
able simply by adding new data to the stockpile. Instead, the essence of any
number of these debates can be understood by analyzing the marked differences
in the underlying interpretation of the species concept.
The chapters are sorted into four thematic sections and a summary, al
though the reader will encounter a good deal of thematic overlap between sec
tions, in keeping with our stated goal. Part I focuses on ontological issues by
examining the role of species in systematics and evolutionary theory. The second
part is devoted to studies of species and speciation among living primates, with
special emphasis on the detection and interpretation of taxonomic diversity. Part
3 looks at the interface of evolutionary theory and species recognition from the
perspective of the primate fossil record. The chapters of Part 4 address the ever
controversial subject of species and hominid systematics. Finally, in the summary
chapter, we attempt to distill the diversity of conceptual perspectives and to
extract the essence of their relevance for primate evolutionary studies.
Each chapter of this book was reviewed by two other chapter authors as well
as one external referee. We thank all reviewers for taking the time to provide us
with careful and thoughtful comments on the manuscripts, even while many of
them were busy preparing their own contributions. Manuscripts were also circu
lated to nonreviewing chapter authors with the expectation that the sharing of
ideas and data would promote discussion and debate. We think this was largely
successful.
Some of the arguments appearing in this volume were aired initially in a
symposium entitled "Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution" con
vened by us at the 1991 meetings of the American Association of Physical An
thropologists in Milwaukee. We thank Dr. Lorna Moore, then AAPA Program
Chair, for helping to ensure the success of the symposium.
We thank our colleagues Drs. Ross MacPhee and John Fleagle, Series Editors
of Advances in Primatology, and Mary Born, Senior Editor at Plenum, for their
early enthusiasm for this project, which resulted in its publication in this series.
We wish to thank Dr. Eric Meikle (Institute of Human Origins) for generous
assistance with critical editorial matters and for compiling the index. We are
grateful to Larissa Smith (IHO) and Helen Giles (Stony Brook) for help in the
administrative arena. We are especially grateful to Wendy Martin for her expert
execution of the cover art.
William H. Kimbel
Lawrence B. Martin
Berkeley and New York