Ponginae , also known as the Asian hominids, is a subfamily in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Hominidae The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...

. Once a diverse lineage of

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

apes, the subfamily has only one

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

, '' Pongo'' (orangutans), which contains three extant

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

; the Sumatran orangutan (''Pongo abelii''), the

Tapanuli orangutan The Tapanuli orangutan (''Pongo tapanuliensis'') is a species of orangutan restricted to South Tapanuli in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is one of three known species of orangutan, alongside the Sumatran orangutan (''P. abelii''), fou ...

(''Pongo tapanuliensis'') and the

Bornean orangutan The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is a species of orangutan endemic to the island of Borneo. Together with the Sumatran orangutan (''Pongo abelii'') and Tapanuli orangutan (''Pongo tapanuliensis''), it belongs to the only genus of grea ...

(''Pongo pygmaeus''). All three species are listed as critically endangered by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

(IUCN).

Evolutionary history

The first pongine genera appear in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

, '' Sivapithecus'' and '' Khoratpithecus'', six or seven million years before evidence of orangutans was found from

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

southeast Asia and southern China. Ponginae may also include the genera '' Lufengpithecus'', '' Ankarapithecus'', and '' Gigantopithecus''. However, phylogenetic analysis in 2004, which originally found ''Lufengpithecus'' and ''Ankarapithecus'' to be most closely related to the orangutan, gave different results "under an analytical method that attempted to reduce stratigraphic incongruence", instead placing them on the base of the stem of the African ape-human clade. The most well-known fossil genus of Ponginae is '' Sivapithecus'', consisting of several species from 12.5 million to 8.5 million years ago. It differs from orangutans in dentition and postcranial morphology.

Taxonomy

Ponginae after Begun, 2002, Chaimanee et al., 2003 and Chaimanee et al., 2004. *

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...

Lufengpithecini ** †'' Lufengpithecus'' *** ''

Lufengpithecus lufengensis ''Lufengpithecus'' () is an extinct genus of ape in the subfamily Ponginae. It is known from thousands of dental remains and a few skulls and probably weighed about . It contains three species: ''L. lufengensis'', ''L. hudienensis'' and ''L ...

'' *** ''Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis'' *** ''Lufengpithecus hudienensis'' * †

Sivapithecini Ponginae , also known as the Asian hominids, is a subfamily in the family Hominidae. Once a diverse lineage of Eurasian apes, the subfamily has only one extant genus, '' Pongo'' (orangutans), which contains three extant species; the Sumatran ...

** †'' Ankarapithecus'' *** ''Ankarapithecus meteai'' ** †'' Sivapithecus'' *** ''Sivapithecus brevirostris'' *** ''Sivapithecus punjabicus'' *** ''Sivapithecus parvada'' *** ''Sivapithecus sivalensis'' *** ''Sivapithecus indicus'' ** †'' Gigantopithecus'' *** ''Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis'' *** ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' ** †'' Indopithecus'' *** ''Indopithecus giganteus'' * Pongini ** †'' Khoratpithecus'' *** ''Khoratpithecus ayeyarwadyensis'' *** ''Khoratpithecus piriyai'' *** ''Khoratpithecus chiangmuanensis'' ** '' Pongo'' (orangutans) *** †'' Pongo hooijeri'' *** †'' Pongo weidenreichi'' *** Sumatran orangutan, ''Pongo abelii'' ***

, ''Pongo pygmaeus'' ***

, ''Pongo tapanuliensis''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q430898 Apes Mammal subfamilies Taxa named by Daniel Giraud Elliot Taxa described in 1913