10-14-2019, 07:16 PM
Mammals: Primatomorpha
1.) From the order Primates, whose extant forms on RL Earth range from lemurs & bush-babies, through monkeys, to humans & other apes, this continent has native populations of [non-human species from only one family:
Cercopithecidae
On the RL Earth this family consists of all the ‘Old World’ monkey species, i.e. those that are native to Africa or Eurasia rather than to the Americas. It is divided into two subfamilies, the Cercopithecinae which contains all of the more terrestrial species (e.g. Baboons) and the more “generalized” of the arboreal ones, and the Colobinae whose members are all specialist leaf-eaters with mainly arboreal lifestyles (e.g. Colobus Monkeys in Africa, Langurs in Asia). The only Colobine species that might be present on this continent would be in a specific area that received “Himalayan foothills” elements in its fauna relatively recently (in geological/palaeontological terms) and would not have spread into this nation.
All of the Cercopithecine monkey species native to this continent belong to a monophyletic lineage which is a sister-group to the lineage comprising all of the RL species (as well as a few that exist in certain parts of the IDU’s northern continent): This was an old hypothesis, and has now been confirmed using molecular studies. The subfamily is therefore split into two infra-families, the Cercopithecitae (in RL, and on the IDU’s northern continent) and the Australosimiitae (endemic to this continent. The dating of that split is awkward, because the sub-family’s African and Asian branches would seem to have diverged from each other a significant amount of time before the earliest date for which we currently have any evidence of any Australosimiite’s presence here: This is probably just because we haven’t yet found fossils for the earliest species that arrived here, but it is also possible that their basal stock actually continued living on a RL-like version of Earth for a while after splitting from the Cercopitheciitae but before moving here with it being there that fossils from the relevant period would have to be found instead…
As with most ‘Monkey’ species that exist on RL Earth, the members of the species here typically go around in groups that (in some cases] can exceed a hundred in strength rather than just individually or in pairs. They communicate extensively with each other, and some species whose ranges overlap actually share alarm-calls to warn of approaching predators. The use of sticks or rocks as simple tools has been observed in a few species, and is suspected to occur at least occasionally in certain others as well. Most species are fairly omnivorous, with neither specialised leaf-eaters nor “full-time” carnivores occurring amongst them, but even those species that do take some vertebrate prey will generally not make “unprovoked” attacks on any animals significantly larger than themselves even if & when they outnumber the potential targets by significant margins.
There are three main lineages within this infrafamily, currently classified as separate tribes:
Australosimii = small to medium monkeys, including all of the more arboreal species and some of those with more terrestrial lifestyles as well; several genera.
Iduimacaccini = medium to large monkeys, less arboreal than some of the Australosimii but still can & do climb trees; some have only very short tails; only one genus (?). (RL comparisons: Barbary Ape, Japanese Macaque.)
Parapapini = medium to large monkeys, almost entirely terrestrial, higher levels of sexual dimorphism than in the other tribes (adult males are larger than adult females, with relatively larger canine teeth which they use against each other as well as against both prey and predators, and may show other differences from juvenile males as well as all females as well. Two genera (?). Common name = “Moboons” ?). (RL comparison: Baboons.)
Iduimacacca cristata** = Crested Macaque, or ‘Baranxtui Ape’
(Details to follow: I do have most of the important facts already determined, but have been working on a wiki-style article about the ‘Mint- Trees’ — which is now almost complete itself — before typing these up…)
2.) From the order Plesiadapiformes, several families exist on this continent and could have members in this nation.
This order as currently recognised in the IDU is a sister-group to the Primates (with the latter possibly including or at least closer to the ‘Colugos’ or ‘Flying Lemurs’ of RL south-eastern Asia, who are otherwise only just outside the [Primates + Plesidadapiformes] grouping). Most of the families historically classified as being within this order are now recognised on both Earths as having been more basal “Primatomorphs” — either earlier branches from the family-tree that leads to the two modern orders or actually in the shared line of ancestry leading to both of the latter — instead, but the family Plesiadapidae (after whom, of course, the Order was named…) did not appear until slightly too late a date to have been ancestral to the Primates and has numerous descendant lineages in the IDU so the name is retained more specifically here for this lineage. Plesiadapiformes on RL Earth apparently failed to compete successfully against the Primates (or perhaps, in the case of some genera, with Squirrels), and have long been extinct, but they arrived (or evolved) in the IDU several entire Epochs before the Primates did and so were able to spread & diverge “in peace” into a range of forms that were largely able to compete successfully when their “cousins” finally turned up… Some lineages of the largest & most ‘monkey-like’ Plesiadapiformes did become extinct, apparently because the “real” monkeys had an advantage over them in terms of group-size (which obviously would have affected relative ability to control food-sources) and perhaps also in intelligence: The large leaf-eating specialist Plesiadapiformes, however, were able to retain their place due to the absence of comparably specialised forms among the arriving monkeys and the fact that they themselves generally lived in larger groups than was the case for any of the other types so that they could hold on to feeding territories more effectively than those could against the monkeys.
I am currently reorganizing my notes about this Order. Its original home in the IDU was on the large island that subsequently collided with the northern continent & became [most of] the modern nation of [nation]Malabra[/nation], but it spread at relatively early dates onto both of the continents as well. Previously I left most of its diversity & endemic families in Malabra, saying that the ones that crossed over into the southern continent included members of only two or perhaps three of those lineages and had not diversified much after their arrival here, but considering the time-scale involved and the lack of Primate competition for a long time I now think that — however scanty & un-diverse those original colonists were — the ones living here today should probably be comparable (although not identical) in diversity to the Malabran & Northern ones.
1.) From the order Primates, whose extant forms on RL Earth range from lemurs & bush-babies, through monkeys, to humans & other apes, this continent has native populations of [non-human species from only one family:
Cercopithecidae
On the RL Earth this family consists of all the ‘Old World’ monkey species, i.e. those that are native to Africa or Eurasia rather than to the Americas. It is divided into two subfamilies, the Cercopithecinae which contains all of the more terrestrial species (e.g. Baboons) and the more “generalized” of the arboreal ones, and the Colobinae whose members are all specialist leaf-eaters with mainly arboreal lifestyles (e.g. Colobus Monkeys in Africa, Langurs in Asia). The only Colobine species that might be present on this continent would be in a specific area that received “Himalayan foothills” elements in its fauna relatively recently (in geological/palaeontological terms) and would not have spread into this nation.
All of the Cercopithecine monkey species native to this continent belong to a monophyletic lineage which is a sister-group to the lineage comprising all of the RL species (as well as a few that exist in certain parts of the IDU’s northern continent): This was an old hypothesis, and has now been confirmed using molecular studies. The subfamily is therefore split into two infra-families, the Cercopithecitae (in RL, and on the IDU’s northern continent) and the Australosimiitae (endemic to this continent. The dating of that split is awkward, because the sub-family’s African and Asian branches would seem to have diverged from each other a significant amount of time before the earliest date for which we currently have any evidence of any Australosimiite’s presence here: This is probably just because we haven’t yet found fossils for the earliest species that arrived here, but it is also possible that their basal stock actually continued living on a RL-like version of Earth for a while after splitting from the Cercopitheciitae but before moving here with it being there that fossils from the relevant period would have to be found instead…
As with most ‘Monkey’ species that exist on RL Earth, the members of the species here typically go around in groups that (in some cases] can exceed a hundred in strength rather than just individually or in pairs. They communicate extensively with each other, and some species whose ranges overlap actually share alarm-calls to warn of approaching predators. The use of sticks or rocks as simple tools has been observed in a few species, and is suspected to occur at least occasionally in certain others as well. Most species are fairly omnivorous, with neither specialised leaf-eaters nor “full-time” carnivores occurring amongst them, but even those species that do take some vertebrate prey will generally not make “unprovoked” attacks on any animals significantly larger than themselves even if & when they outnumber the potential targets by significant margins.
There are three main lineages within this infrafamily, currently classified as separate tribes:
Australosimii = small to medium monkeys, including all of the more arboreal species and some of those with more terrestrial lifestyles as well; several genera.
Iduimacaccini = medium to large monkeys, less arboreal than some of the Australosimii but still can & do climb trees; some have only very short tails; only one genus (?). (RL comparisons: Barbary Ape, Japanese Macaque.)
Parapapini = medium to large monkeys, almost entirely terrestrial, higher levels of sexual dimorphism than in the other tribes (adult males are larger than adult females, with relatively larger canine teeth which they use against each other as well as against both prey and predators, and may show other differences from juvenile males as well as all females as well. Two genera (?). Common name = “Moboons” ?). (RL comparison: Baboons.)
Iduimacacca cristata** = Crested Macaque, or ‘Baranxtui Ape’
(Details to follow: I do have most of the important facts already determined, but have been working on a wiki-style article about the ‘Mint- Trees’ — which is now almost complete itself — before typing these up…)
2.) From the order Plesiadapiformes, several families exist on this continent and could have members in this nation.
This order as currently recognised in the IDU is a sister-group to the Primates (with the latter possibly including or at least closer to the ‘Colugos’ or ‘Flying Lemurs’ of RL south-eastern Asia, who are otherwise only just outside the [Primates + Plesidadapiformes] grouping). Most of the families historically classified as being within this order are now recognised on both Earths as having been more basal “Primatomorphs” — either earlier branches from the family-tree that leads to the two modern orders or actually in the shared line of ancestry leading to both of the latter — instead, but the family Plesiadapidae (after whom, of course, the Order was named…) did not appear until slightly too late a date to have been ancestral to the Primates and has numerous descendant lineages in the IDU so the name is retained more specifically here for this lineage. Plesiadapiformes on RL Earth apparently failed to compete successfully against the Primates (or perhaps, in the case of some genera, with Squirrels), and have long been extinct, but they arrived (or evolved) in the IDU several entire Epochs before the Primates did and so were able to spread & diverge “in peace” into a range of forms that were largely able to compete successfully when their “cousins” finally turned up… Some lineages of the largest & most ‘monkey-like’ Plesiadapiformes did become extinct, apparently because the “real” monkeys had an advantage over them in terms of group-size (which obviously would have affected relative ability to control food-sources) and perhaps also in intelligence: The large leaf-eating specialist Plesiadapiformes, however, were able to retain their place due to the absence of comparably specialised forms among the arriving monkeys and the fact that they themselves generally lived in larger groups than was the case for any of the other types so that they could hold on to feeding territories more effectively than those could against the monkeys.
I am currently reorganizing my notes about this Order. Its original home in the IDU was on the large island that subsequently collided with the northern continent & became [most of] the modern nation of [nation]Malabra[/nation], but it spread at relatively early dates onto both of the continents as well. Previously I left most of its diversity & endemic families in Malabra, saying that the ones that crossed over into the southern continent included members of only two or perhaps three of those lineages and had not diversified much after their arrival here, but considering the time-scale involved and the lack of Primate competition for a long time I now think that — however scanty & un-diverse those original colonists were — the ones living here today should probably be comparable (although not identical) in diversity to the Malabran & Northern ones.