According to the Journal of Human Evolution, orangutans used to live in Java about 100,000 years ago.
Today, these apes live only in Borneo and Sumatra.
Probably, there used to be a Sumatra-Java land bridge then; as orangutans don’t swim.
These are results of new research in the Gunung Dawung area of Java, by palaeoanthropologist Paul Storm and others.
The team also found modern humans (Homo sapiens) lived in Java then.
This is earlier than thought so far.
Talking about evolution: US corporations do not want to sponsor scientific evolution exhibitions; see here.
Orangutans and intelligence: here.
Advertisements
I remember reading somewhere about orangutans in Indochina as well. Although it could have been misidentified large gibbons. A curious legacy of Sundaland is that there aren’t any tigers in Borneo, even though the cats used to range down to Bali. They certainly had enough time to form the Javan, Sumatran and Balinese subspecies after the Sunda plate sunk, and Borneo shares many species with Sumatra (orangutans, elephants, freshwater fishes).
Bernhard Grzimek, Life of animals; Dutch edition; Het leven der dieren, vol X, p 563 [chapter by Barbara Harrisson], claims orang utan fossils from Peking to Celebes. More recently, also in north Vietnam fossils were found.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN CHIMPANZEES.
T. Matsuzawa, M. Tomonaga, and M. Tanaka, Eds.
Springer, Tokyo, 2006.
Hardback: 540 pp., illus. $89.95. ISBN 4431302468.
More information at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4431302468/scienceweek
Lessons from orangutans: upright walking
may have begun in trees
A new theory suggests our two-legged walk first
arose in ancient, tree-dwelling apes.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070531_bipedalism.htm
Pingback: BHP Billiton corporation threat to orang-utans of Borneo | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Fossil Javanese animal research | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Indonesian orangutans freed from rich wildlife criminals | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Java tiger not extinct? | Dear Kitty. Some blog