Classifying apes & relatives

[Ken Kinman]

Dear All,
     Well since we are on the subject, here is the part of my "sketchy"
preliminary primate classification showing how the main families of apes and
relatives may have split off.  I recognize broader (fewer) families than
most workers.  Family Pongidae (great apes excluding "hominids sensu
stricto") is obviously paraphyletic.  The recently described genus
Kenyanthropus is placed within Australopithecus.  Orrorin is too fragmentary
and controversial to place in either Pongidae or Hominidae with any
confidence.
     Anyway, if a chimp-human clade is disproven, the {{Hominidae}} exgroup
marker would just need to be moved up closer to Pongo.  Once again, this
kind of modular approach to classification gives us flexibility without
sacrificing stability.

  1  Cercopithecidae
  2  Propliopithecidae
  3  Pliopithecidae
  4  Proconsulidae
  ?  Oreopithecidae
  5  Hylobatidae
  6  Pongidae
        1  Dryopithecus
        ?  Ouranopithecus
        2  Lufengpithecus
        B  Sivapithecus
        C  Pongo
        3  Gorilla
        ?  Samburupithecus
        4  Pan
        5  {{Hominidae}}
_a_ Hominidae
        1  Ardipithecus
        ?  Sahelanthropus
        2  Australopithecus
       _a_ Homo

              ----- Cheers,
                      Ken Kinman

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