| Abstract: |
Fossil remains of the great Pongidae are very rare in Africa as well as in southern Asia and, therefore, it is not yet possible today to draw the outlines of the pleistocene history of <i> Pan </i> (Oken 1816) or <i> Gorilla </i> (Geoffroy 1852) on account of the lack of fossil documentation. In the case of <i> Pongo </i> (Lapécède 1799), however, quite a number of pleistocene localities with fossil remains of the genus are on record--even of different geological horizons. These data enable us to attempt a review of the pleistocene distribution, phylogeny, and taxonomy of this genus. The presence of <i> Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus </i> (Hoppius)--a large orang indistinguishable from the pleistocene form <i> Pongo pygmaeus "weidenreichi" </i> (Hooijer), either by size or by dental morphology--in the younger unconsolidated cave-filling of Hang-Hum, Luc-Yen, DR Viet Nam, proves the animal still to have been living on the continent of southeast Asia in post-pleistocene times.
|
