Abstract
Recent discoveries of new hominoid species from the Late Miocene of Africa provide us various insights for the study of hominoid evolution and human origins. One of them, Nakalipithecus is a large-bodied hominoid from 9.8 my-old Nakali, Kenya. It has a close relationship with the slightly younger Ouranopithecus known from Greece and Turkey and is very likely the sister taxon to the extant African apes and humans among the currently known hominoids. More importantly, Nakalipithecus is accompanied with several other catarrhine taxa, including another large-bodied hominoid, small-bodied non-cercopithecoid catarrhines, and cercopithecid and victoriapithecid monkeys. In this article, we review the phylogeny of Late Miocene hominoids, morphological evidences to connect Nakalipithecus with Ouranopithecus, and paleoenvironments of Nakali and biogeography of Late Miocene hominoids. Also, we propose a scenario of competition in cercopithecoids and non-cercopithecoid catarrhines in the Late Miocene of Africa and its influence on hominoid evolution.
