| Abstract: |
This paper presents a review of the primate faunas from four key prehistroic sites in northern Borneo - Niah, Bau and Gua Sireh in Sarawak, and Madai in Sabah. The primates are of particular interest because they represent a significant component of the modern-day fauna, they provide insights into prehistoric human hunting strategies and dietary preferences, and they offer clues to understanding paleoecological changes in Borneo during the late Quaternary. All of the genera of primates living today on Borneo are known from the archaeological record, with the exception of Nasalis and Tarsius. A reanalysis of the dental remains of orang-utans from Niah contradict Hooijer's earlier claim that they are larger than those of their modern conspecifics and show a corresponding increase in size with increasing depth in the cave sediments. However, metrical data do indicate that the small sample of isolated teeth from Bau are larger on average than those of modern-day Bornean orang-utans. The remains of orang-utans are relatively common at Niah, implying that the human occupants may have specialized in hunting this primate. The sample of gibbons from Niah is small, but metrical evidence does support Hooijer's tentative conclusion that they are similar in size or slightly larger than extant Hylobates muelleri. The teeth of Macaca fascicularis from Niah and Bau are slighly larger than those of their modern conspecifics, while those from Madai and Gua Sireh are similar in size. This is consistent with modls of ecogeographic variation in extant M. fascicularis, as well as with climatic changes in Southeast Asia during the late Quaternary. Differences in the relative frequencies of M. fascicularis and M. nemestrina at Niah and Gua Sireh probably relfect ecological distinctions. Presbytis spp. and Trachypithecus cristatus from Niah have relatively large teeth, while those from Gua Sireh are comparable in size to modern species. The larger dental size of the primates from Niah and Bau, compared with those from Madai and Gua Sireh, is probably a reflection of their greater antiquity.
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