A highly derived pliopithecoid from the Late Miocene of Haritalyangar, India.

The Late Miocene sequence at Haritalyangar, Himachal Pradesh, India, has produced abundant remains of the hominid Sivapithecus and the sivaladapids Sivaladapis and Indraloris. Also recovered from these sediments is an isolated and worn upper molar that was made the holotype of Krishnapithecus krishnaii and assigned to the Pliopithecoidea. However, the heavy wear and absence of definitive pliopithecoid features on the tooth rendered the assignment to this superfamily unconvincing. Here, we describe two lower molars from Haritalyangar that bear unmistakable pliopithecoid features and that are plausibly assignable to the same species as the type specimen of K. krishnaii. They convincingly demonstrate for the first time the presence of the Pliopithecoidea in South Asia. The new molars also reveal that K. krishnaii was perhaps the largest known pliopithecoid and that it possessed highly derived postcanine dental morphology. Because of its highly derived nature, it is difficult to determine its relationships within Pliopithecoidea, but a sister taxon relationship with either the Dionysopithecidae or Pliopithecinae is equally plausible; it is only distantly related to the Crouzeliinae. It is sufficiently distinct, however, from all other pliopithecoids to warrant placement in a separate family.

A first possible chameleon from the late Miocene of India (the hominoid site of Haritalyangar): a tentative evidence for an Asian dispersal of chameleons.

Miocene rare fossils from India, tentatively attributed to chameleons, are described for the first time. The material consists of a fragment of the left squamosal and an element interpreted as a posterodorsal process of the parietal. The specimens come from a late Miocene site of the Nagri Formation (Middle Siwaliks, ~ 9 Mya) at Haritalyangar, North India. This material presents a possible evidence for a chameleon dispersal to Asia. Based on molecular data, the dispersion of an Asian chamaeleonid lineage from Africa to Arabia/Asia is dated at approximately 13 Mya and its diversification in situ at around 6-8 Mya. However, till now, no Miocene-age fossil record has been described to support crown chamaeleonid presence in this area. The material described herein is very fragmented. If correctly allocated, the Haritalyangar chameleons show the oldest known occurrence of this clade in India, at least approximately 9 Mya ago.