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

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Hominidae The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic Family (biology), family of primates that includes eight Neontology#Extant taxa versus extinct taxa, extant species in four Genus, genera: ''Orangutan ...

. Once a diverse lineage of

Eurasian Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents dates back to antiq ...

apes, the subfamily has only one

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern 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 * Exta ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

; the

Sumatran orangutan The Sumatran orangutan (''Pongo abelii'') is one of the three species of orangutans. Critically endangered, and found only in the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, it is rarer than the Bornean orangutan but more common than the recently ...

(''Pongo abelii''), the Tapanuli orangutan (''Pongo tapanuliensis'') and the

Bornean orangutan The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is an orangutan species endemic to the island of Borneo. It belongs to the only genus of great apes native to Asia and is the largest of the three ''Pongo'' species. It has a coarse, reddish coat and up ...

(''Pongo pygmaeus''). All three species are listed as

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(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 Sivalik Hills of the Ind ...

'' 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 ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

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

Lufengpithecus ''Lufengpithecus'' () is an Extinction, extinct genus of ape, known from the Late Miocene of East Asia. It is known from thousands of Dental anatomy, dental remains and a few skulls and probably weighed about . It contains three species: ''L. luf ...

'', ''

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 Güleç ...

'', and ''

Gigantopithecus ''Gigantopithecus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of ape that lived in southern China from 2 million to approximately 300,000–200,000 years ago during the Early Pleistocene, Early to Middle Pleistocene, represented by one species, ''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. ''

Meganthropus ''Meganthropus'' is an extinct genus of non-hominin hominid ape, known from the Pleistocene of Indonesia. It is known from a series of large jaw and skull fragments found at the Sangiran site near Surakarta in Central Java, Indonesia, alongside ...

'' was considered by the majority of paleoanthropologists as falling within the variation of ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' ( ) is an extinction, extinct species of Homo, archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and human gait, gait, to early expansions of h ...

''. However, a study from 2019 of tooth morphology found ''Meganthropus'' a valid genus of non-hominin hominid ape, most closely related to ''Lufengpithecus'' 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. *

† 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 or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Lufengpithecini ** †''

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

'' *** ''Meganthropus palaeojavanicus'' * † Sivapithecini ** †''

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

'' *** ''Sivapithecus parvada'' *** ''Sivapithecus sivalensis'' *** ''Sivapithecus indicus'' ** †''

'' *** ''Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis'' *** ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' ** †'' Indopithecus'' *** ''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 ''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. Description ''Pongo hooijeri'' is only ...

'' *** †''

Pongo weidenreichi The Chinese orangutan (''Pongo weidenreichi'') is an extinct species of orangutan from the Pleistocene of South China and possibly Southeast Asia. It is known from fossil teeth found in the Sanhe Cave, and Baikong, Juyuan and Queque Caves in Ch ...

'' ***

, ''Pongo abelii'' ***

, ''Pongo pygmaeus'' *** Tapanuli orangutan, ''Pongo tapanuliensis''

References

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