HOMINIDAE AND CEBIDAE ARE THE CLOSEST PRIMATE FAMILIES TO MODERN HUMANS


Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 22, 2022, 119 (35) e2116681119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116681119

Signatures of adaptive evolution in platyrrhine primate genomes

Byrne, Hazel , Timothy H. Webster, Sarah F. Brosnan, Jessica W. Lynch 

Primates of South and Central America known as platyrrhines show broad phenotypic diversity, but we know very little about the genetic changes underlying this diversity or at what point during platyrrhine evolutionary history they arose. Particularly notable are capuchin monkeys for their many parallels with humans and apes, including large brains, intelligence, long lives, and tool usage. Here, we generate a set of high-quality, manually curated protein-coding alignments for comparative genomic analysis of platyrrhines, focusing on the family Cebidae (capuchin and squirrel monkeys). We uncover signatures of selection related to brain development and other cebid traits, lending insight into major periods of cebid adaptive evolution and the evolutionary mechanisms underlying convergence between capuchins and apes.


“Among New World primates, Cebidae are considered the closest to Hominidae in terms of “social conventions and traditions, complex relationships, high dexterity, sensorimotor intelligence with tool use and extractive foraging, advanced derived cognitive abilities, diverse behavioral repertoire and flexibility, and slow maturation.”