B-29 Phylogenetic positions of Pondaung primates (latest middle Eocene,Myanmar)

The Pondaung Formation (latest middle Eocene, Central Myanmar) is well known as producing rich mammal fossils including primates. Since 1998, Primate Research Institute (Kyoto University) has carried out paleontological investigations in Pondaung area, and discovered many primate specimens, such as Pondaungia and Amphipithecus (Amphipithecidae), Bahinia (Eosimiidae), and unnamed new genus. The preliminary morphological analyses of these speciemens suggest that the Pondaung primates are likely to be more derived than adapoids and omomyoids and, on the other hand, more primitive than late Eocene/early Oligocene Fayum anthropoids, such as oligopithecids, parapithecids, and propliopithecids. Pondaung fossil primates probably belong to“protoanthropoid grade”in early stage of the primate evolution.