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. Once a diverse lineage of

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

apes, the subfamily has only one extant

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 nom ...

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

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of 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 appropriate s ...

; 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 (''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 nat ...

(IUCN).

Evolutionary history

The first pongine genera appear in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

, ''

Sivapithecus ''Sivapithecus'' () (syn: ''Ramapithecus)'' is a genus of extinct apes. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.2 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills of the I ...

'' and ''

Khoratpithecus ''Khoratpithecus'' is an extinct genus of pongin primates that lived during the late Miocene (7–9 million years ago) in Myanmar and Thailand. Three species belong to this genus: *''Khoratpithecus chiangmuanensis'' from Thailand (Chaimanee, ...

'', 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 in ...

southeast Asia and southern China. Ponginae may also include the genera ''

Lufengpithecus ''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. k ...

'', ''

Ankarapithecus ''Ankarapithecus'' is a genus of extinct ape. It was probably frugivorous, and would have weighed about . Its remains were found close to Ankara in central Turkey beginning in the 1950s. It lived during the Late MioceneBegun, David R. and Gül ...

'', and ''

Gigantopithecus ''Gigantopithecus'' ( ; ) is an extinct genus of ape from roughly 2 million to 350,000 years ago during the Early to Middle Pleistocene of southern China, represented by one species, ''Gigantopithecus blacki''. Potential identifications have als ...

''. 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 ''

'', 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. * †Lufengpithecini ** †''

'' *** '' Lufengpithecus lufengensis'' *** ''Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis'' *** ''Lufengpithecus hudienensis'' * † Sivapithecini ** †''

'' *** ''Ankarapithecus meteai'' ** †''

'' *** ''Sivapithecus brevirostris'' *** ''Sivapithecus punjabicus'' *** ''Sivapithecus parvada'' *** ''Sivapithecus sivalensis'' *** ''Sivapithecus indicus'' ** †''

'' *** ''Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis'' *** ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' ** †''

Indopithecus ''Indopithecus giganteus'' () is an extinct species of large ape that lived in the late Miocene of the Siwalik Hills in northern India. Although frequently assigned to the more well-known genus '' Gigantopithecus'', recent authors consider it ...

'' *** ''Indopithecus giganteus'' *

Pongini Pongini is a tribe containing the orangutan and the fossil genus ''Khoratpithecus ''Khoratpithecus'' is an extinct genus of pongin primates that lived during the late Miocene (7–9 million years ago) in Myanmar and Thailand. Three species ...

** †''

'' *** ''Khoratpithecus ayeyarwadyensis'' *** ''Khoratpithecus piriyai'' *** ''Khoratpithecus chiangmuanensis'' ** '' Pongo'' (orangutans) *** †''

Pongo hooijeri The Vietnamese orangutan (''Pongo hooijeri'') is an extinct species of orangutan from the Pleistocene of Vietnam. It was named in honor of paleontologist Dirk Albert Hooijer. Fossils of the ape were found in the Tham Hai Cave. It is unclear w ...

'' *** †''

Pongo weidenreichi The Chinese orangutan (''Pongo weidenreichi'') is an extinct species of orangutan from the Early Pleistocene of South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning ...

'' *** Sumatran orangutan, ''Pongo abelii'' *** Bornean orangutan, ''Pongo pygmaeus'' ***

, ''Pongo tapanuliensis''

References

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