A History of Agriculture in India v1.c11: Chapter 5. The Tertiary Period : Miocene-Pliocene Epochs

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c11

Language: English

v1.c11.s1 Evolution of Primates in India — 11 parts
v1.c11.s2 Hominization — 20 parts
v1.c11.s3 Australopithecines — 14 parts
v1.c11.s4 References — 1 part

Chapter 5. The Tertiary Period : Miocene-Pliocene Epochs

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APES, RAMAPITHECUS, THE EARLIEST-KNOWN HOMINID, AND AUSTRALOPITHECINES

WITH the disintegration of the Gondwanaland towards the end of the Cretaceous, the continents acquired their present features, their shapes, the great mountain systems, the courses of the rivers, the great plains, and the climatic zones. The Cenozoic Era that followed the Mesozoic is continued up to the present. It began about 60 million years ago.

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The Cenozoic Era is divided into two periods—the Tertiary and the Quaternary. The Tertiary is subdivided into five epochs. The name of each epoch ends with the suffix cene (Greek, recent), and refers to the progress of life. Originally it was done on the basis of the percentage of living species of molluscs found in the rocks, but later certain marked palaeontologic characters as well as physical events were included. The Tertiary Period has been studied in greater detail than any other period, partly because its flora and fauna bear close similarities to the living forms, but mainly because of economic reasons, viz. search for petroleum, of which more than 50 per cent of the world production comes from the Tertiary rocks.

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The subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era are shown below with their approximate durations:

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Middle Miocene to Lower Pleistocene—the Siwalik System. The Siwalik Hills extend for 1,600 kilometres along the Himalayas from Baluchistan to Assam. They are 16 to 59 kilometres wide, and rise to a height of 1,600 metres. They are composed of fine sand and pebbles, and were formed from the mid-Miocene to the Pleistocene. The Siwalik system has been split into three divisions as follows :

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| Upper Siwaliks | { Boulder conglomerate beds Pinjor sandstones ... ... Tatrot sandstone ... ... | First Glaciation Lower Pleistocene Pliocene |
| Middle Siwaliks | { Dhok Pathan—gravels, brown sandstones, shales and clays Nagri—grey sandstone and shales | Upper to middle Miocene |
| Lower Siwaliks | { Chinji—bright red shales and sandstones Kamlial sandstones | Middle Miocene |

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The Siwalik or Indobrahm River. From the north-eastern corner of Assam, a mighty river flowed in the western direction along the foot of the Himalayas as far as the Pothohar or Rawalpindi plateau in Pakistan, where it joined the Indus which emptied itself into the Arabian Sea, then lying farther inside Sind. This river has been called the “Indobrahm” or the Siwalik River. It received on its right bank the rivers of the Gangetic system as well as the Punjab rivers of the Indus system. On its left bank, it might have received the ancient Son, Chambal, etc., from Peninsular India. The Indobrahm flourished from the Miocene to the Pliocene for about 20 million years. During this period, its basin, 6,000 metres deep, was filled with mud, sand, gravel, boulders, logs of wood and skeletons of dead animals that lived in the neighbourhood. An excessive thickness of sediments accumulated as the basin was gradually sinking in response to the rising Himalayas in accordance with the principle of isostasy.

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Although there can be no doubt about the existence of the Siwalik River from the vicinity of Naini Tal to the Arabian Sea, its continuation farther eastwards along the whole length of the Himalayan base to Assam is less substantiated.

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Climate. General fluctuations of climate during the Tertiary comprised progressive warming up from the lower Eocene, approaching the maximum warmth in the later Eocene, Oligocene and the early Miocene when besides the warm, the wet and humid climate existed and supported tropical rain forests. From the upper Miocene to the Pliocene, the climate gradually cooled again and progressively approached its climax towards the close of the Pliocene. In this general trend of climatic changes, it may be remarked that the warm to wet tropical climate almost uniformly existed all over India during the early and mid-Tertiary and it was more moist than now.

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The Fauna. The fauna provides a glimpse of the geographical conditions that generally prevailed during the Siwalik Period in the riverain tracts along the foot of the rising Himalayas. The dinotheres and primitive trilophodonts were water-loving animals, characteristic of warm and humid lowlands, because their teeth were adapted to eating only succulent herbage. The occurrence of the aquatic tragulids and hippopotamuses suggests the presence of rivers. A savannah or swamp-type environment is indicated by *Hipparion*, whose broad hooves were exceptionally adapted to it, whereas *Equus* was better adapted to harder ground and harsher herbage. The presence of antelopes indicates prairies, steppes, or deserts, whereas goats and oxen, with "cloven hooves" were suited for moving on the soft forest soils. The majority of the pigs and Canidae were forest-dwellers, though a few from the Chinji to the Dhok Pathan show striking adaptation to the growing arid conditions. *Giraffokeryx* had a preference for the forest, and the giraffe, with its characteristic feet and teeth structure, preferred the open grassland with scattered trees. In the words of Edwin Pascoe, "In general, therefore, we may visualize, during most of the period, belts of luxuriant forest and open grass plains, with a great river winding through one or the other."

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The presence of hippopotamuses, antelopes, giraffes, and giraffe-like animals indicates a link with Africa, where these animals still exist, whereas they have become extinct in India. It seems there was an effective land-link between India and Africa in the Tertiary Period.

Evolution of Primates in India

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Africa, India and South-East Asia are the areas where the evolution of primates has been going on for a long time. Of the Prosimii, the common tree shrew, *Tupaia*, is found north of the Ganges, and *Anthana*, the Madras tree shrew, in the tropical forests of southern India. Two species of *Loris* are also found in India, *Nycticebus coucang* in the forests of Assam, and *Loris tardigradus* in southern India. The rhesus monkey (*Macaca mulatta*), bonnet monkey (*Macaca radiata*), and the langur (*Presbytis entellus*) are found in many states. The commonest of them is the rhesus (Fig. 19). Of the Hominoids, the gibbon (*Hylobates hoolock*) inhabits the tropical forests of Assam and the Naga Hills.

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The Apes. The genera *Parapithecus*, *Apidium*, and *Oligopithecus* are among the oldest specimens of higher primates from the Oligocene Period found near Fayum in Egypt. Other discoveries from the upper levels of the middle and upper Oligocene of Fayum belong to the genera *Propliopithecus* and *Aegyptopithecus*. *Propliopithecus* had a smaller skeleton, much smaller than that of today's gibbons. *Aegyptopithecus* was larger, and was about the same size as the gibbon, and dates back to 34 million years. According to Simons, *Aegyptopithecus* relates directly with the genus *Propliopithecus and is the nearest relative of today's pongids. Other authors would like to accept the genus *Propliopithecus* as the forerunner of the Pongids, that is, the basic ancestor of the Hominoids.¹

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¹ Jelinek, J. *The Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Evolution of Man*, p. 23

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*Pliopithecus* has been known since 1837 from the Miocene and Pliocene periods in France. Almost complete skeletons of *Pliopithecus* were found in Czechoslovakia. *Pliopithecus* had seven lumbar vertebrae (the other Hominoids, including the gibbons, have only five) and the development of the sacrum at the lower end of the spine, indicating that it had a long tail of 15 to 19 vertebrae.

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L. S. B. Leakey discovered a fossil ape from the lower Miocene from around Lake Victoria in East Africa. Hopwood named it *Proconsul africanus*, after the chimpanzee 'Consul' from the London Zoo. The structure of the limbs leads to the assumption that *Proconsul* moved about on all fours.

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Pilgrim is the pioneer of research on fossil anthropoid apes in India. In 1910, he recorded *Sivapithecus indicus* from Chinji, *Dryopithecus punjabicus* from Haritalynagar near Bilaspur and *Semnopithecus asnoti* from Aasnot in the Salt Range, Pakistan. In 1922, Brown established three new species of *Dryopithecus*. Of these, *D. pilgrimi* was collected from Kirmu and Dal Sar, near Ramnagar, a town 103 kilometres east of Jammu. These sites are shown in Fig. 17. In 1965, Simons and Pilbeam, after a comparative study of all specimens, classified all African and Siwalik material into two genera—*Dryopithecus* and *Ramapithecus*. *Dryopithecus* includes *Sugrivapithecus* and *Sivapithecus* as well as *Proconsul* and is considered to be an ape in the Pongidae. Apart from India, *Dryopithecus* is kown from Europe, Spain, France, the European parts of the USSR, the Caucasus, North Africa and Anatolia.

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Recently, specimens of *Dryopithecus sivalensis* have been described by Chopra (1975) from Haritalynagar.

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It has sometimes been assumed that the genus *Dryopithecus* could be connected with the gorilla (*Gorilla gorilla*) and with the chimpanzee (*Pan paniscus*), whereas the orang-utan (*Pongo pygmaeus*) of Borneo and Sumatra has a direct phylogenetic relationship with the family of *Sivapithecus*.

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In 1956, a complete lower jaw of *Gigantopithecus blacki* was found in Lintscheng cave in the Lan-tschai-schan mountain in the central area of Kuang-si in China. Recently, Pei found a second jaw, several teeth, and another complete lower jaw of this ape. *Gigantopithecus* was an enormous ape which lived in the middle Pleistocene. The lower jaw is exceptionally large. Pei states that *Gigantopithecus* was significantly bigger than the gorilla, and thinks that it might have been approximately 3.5 metres tall and was the largest-known primate.

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Simons and Chopra (1969) described a new species *Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis* from the lower Pliocene period in a formation, five to ten million years old. This find was a lower jaw recovered from the Dhok Pathan horizon of the Siwalik series, towards the east of the village of Haritalynagar in the Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh. Haritalynagar is named after the villages of Talynagar, situated at the bottom of the valley, and Hari at the top. It is about 30 kilometres north-west of Bilaspur. This area in the past was a lake. Hari-ka-Tibba, close to the village of Hari, is a veritable treasure-house of primate fossils. Chopra believes that this specimen shows a greater affinity with the pongids then with the hominids, and was about the size of the gorilla. However, a marked reduction in the front teeth and canines has important evolutionary implications. The appearance of such hominid traits in the Pliocene Period is of significance.

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Fig. 17. Hominoid sites in the Siwaliks in India and Pakistan: Haritalynagar near Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh), Kirmu and Dal Sar near Ramnagar (Jammu), and the Salt Range in the Attock and Jhelum Districts, Pakistan (After A. P. Khatri)

Hominization

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What are the changes involved in the process of the development of man, also called *hominization*? Jelinek thus sums them up: "One characteristic is the straightening up of the body, gaining an erect posture, so that changes occurred in the spine, the pelvis, and the long-bones of the limbs. Hands and feet changed considerably. The structure of the sole of the foot changed, and developed a double vault. The facial skeleton became more flattened. The brain and the brain-case grew larger. One of the most important characteristics which accompanies the develoment of man is the rounded, or parabolic, form of the dental arcade and the hard palate.”²

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The development of man was also determined by climatic and marked environmental changes. Tropical forests were replaced by steppes (grassland), and this seems to have been the point at which man began to adopt an erect posture. The ancestors of man, the herbivorous great apes, had to change their feeding habits to include meat because vegetation had become sparse. Besides, meat provides more concentrated protein diet. Hunting speeded up the development of the upright posture of the body, stimulated the growth of the brain, and strengthened all other functions. The ancestor of man developed into an omnivorous creature. Man’s ancestors were neither fast enough nor strong enough to overpower hunting animals easily or to catch up with them. They had to be cunning and use stones and clubs to kill animals. The hand became an important instrument, and the activities of the brain were stimulated.

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Ramapithecus, the earliest-known Hominid. Pilgrim (1910) established the species *Dryopithecus punjabicus* on the basis of the rami of a mandible recovered from the Chinji beds of the Salt Range, Pakistan.

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Lewis (1934) reported a new genus *Ramapithecus* and proposed two species of this taxon. The name *Ramapithecus brevirostris* was assigned to the type consisting of a right maxilla and premaxilla, the alveolus of the canine, the root of I² and the alveolus of I¹, found 400 metres east of Chakrana which is situated about 6·5 kilometres east of the village of Haritalynagar in Himachal Pradesh. The other species, *Ramapithecus hariensis*, was assigned to the type consisting of a “fragment” of the right maxilla containing the first and second molars. This was found about 400 metres east of the village of Haritalynagar in Himachal Pradesh. The reconstruction of the skull of *Ramapithecus* is shown in Fig. 18.

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² Jelinek, J. *The Evolution of Man* pp. 45, 46

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In 1960, Simons checked these finds and came to the conclusion that the lower jaw described by Pilgrim to be that of *Dryopithecus punjabicus* did not belong to *Dryopithecus*. He included *Dryopithecus punjabicus* and *Ramapithecus brevirostris* under the name *Ramapithecus punjabicus*.

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In 1961, Leaky discovered two pieces of an upper jaw from Ternan in South-West Kenya, Africa, which he named *Kenyapithecus wickeri*. Later studies showed that *Kenyapithecus* was a different form of *Ramapithecus*, and it was renamed *Ramapithecus wickeri*.

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Fig. 18. Reconstruction of the skull of Ramapithecus (After Jelinek)

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Another *Ramapithecus* discovery, i.e. two single molars, was made in China, at a place called Leiyan. It is referable to *Ramapithecus punjabicus*. *Ramapithecus* finds have also been reported from the Swavian Alps of Europe.

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Simons and Pilbeam (1965) gave the following generic diagnosis of *Ramapithecus*, pointing out the main features in which it differs from *Australopithecus* and *Dryopithecus*:

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"Slightly smaller overall size (except *Proconsul africanus*, which they renamed *Dryopithecus africanus*), shallower mandible, less complex patterns of tooth crenulation, little or no evidence of cingula or Carabellis' cusps and shorter face. Incisors and canines reduced in relation to cheek-tooth size when compared to *Dryopithecus* but not as markedly as in *Australopithecus*; incisor procumbancy intermediate. Differs from *Dryopithecus* and other apes in showing more widely spaced and much lower molar cusps, so that the central or occlusal fovea of the molars covers more of the crown surface of the tooth (even so these features show some variability in *Ramapithecus* and *Dryopithecus* as well as in modern *Homo* and *Pan*); sides of the upper molars, particularly, are more vertical; also differs from *Dryopithecus* in showing a larger and lower canine fossa, an arched palate, arcuate tooth row and a much shorter rostrum."³

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³ Chopra, S.R.K. Presidential Address, Anthropology and Archaeology, Indian Science Congress, Nagpur, 1974

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The facial and dental morphology of *Ramapithecus* shows distinct hominid characteristics. Goodall observes: "The principal human characteristics Fig. 19. A group of rhesus monkeys, Mughal, A.D. 1596 of the teeth of *Ramapithecus* are the small size and the lack of prominence of the canines, the broad flat molars showing interstitial wear, and relatively small incisors. These characters are in striking contrast to the teeth of the contemporary dryopithecine apes with their huge, overlapping canines, large shovel-shaped incisors and a distinctive wear pattern.

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Fig. 20. Principal deposits of fossil man in Africa. (i) Transvaal Sites: *Australopithecus africanus* and *Australopithecus robustus*, about 2 million years old; Dart, 1924, and Broom, 1936; (ii) Olduvai Gorge: *Australopithecus boisei* (1959) and *Homo habilis* (1961), both 1.8 million years old; Louis and Mary Leakey; (iii) the lower Omo River: early hominids, ranging from 1 million to 4 million years old; Howell and Coppens, 1969; (iv) Lake Turkana: *Homo* skull, 2 million to 3 million years old (1972), and 1.5-million-year-old *Homo erectus* skull (1975); Richard Leakey; (v) Laetolil; 3.35- to 3.75-million-year-old *Homo* jaw-bones and teeth; Mary Leakey, 1974-75; and (vi) Hadar: "Lucy", 3-million-year-old *Australopithecus* skeleton, and *Homo* "family"; Johanson and Taieb, 1974-75

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"The lower face indicates that the jaws did not protrude to form the muzzle, as in the apes, but were flattened, as in Australopithecines, particularly the robust forms. The facio-dental complex shown by *Ramapithecus* suggests that it was a ground feeder, dependent for survival on such food items as grasses, seeds, rhizomes, bulbs and fleshy plants—quite a different menu from the fruit diet of the dryopithecines.

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"From the evidence provided by fossil seeds and the remains of other mammals of the Nagri Formation of the Siwalik area, it seems that *Ramapithecus* lived in a region of mixed forest interspersed with open areas around lakes and water-courses."⁴

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⁴ Goodall, V. *The Quest for Man*, p. 102

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We have no knowledge of the rest of the body of *Ramapithecus*. Nothing is known about its skull, brain-size, and its hands and feet. It is not known whether it stood upright. Circumstantial evidence, however, suggests that *Ramapithecus punjabicus* might have been a partial biped.

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As regards its age, Khatri states that *Ramapithecus punjabicus* lived in India from the upper Miocene to the early Pliocene, 14 to 8 million years ago. The question is which of the finds of *Ramapithecus*, Indian or East African, is older? Goodall observes, "The African species at about 14 million years is slightly older than the Indian form at 12 million years." Edey states, "Leakey's Fort Ternan find locates *Ramapithecus* in East Africa at least two million years before it appeared in India—and, most important, in a country where Australopithecines of great age are beginning to turn up. It seems most sensible to continue to argue the case for Africa as the breeding ground of man. *Ramapithecus* populations may well have radiated out from Africa—to India and perhaps to other places—over a period of several million years. But this is no guarantee that they went on to produce hominid descendants in those places. Until fossil evidence confirms that they did, it seems more logical to assume that early hominid evolution was confined to the place where the fossils are: Africa."⁵

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⁵ Edey, M.A. *The Emergence of Man, The Missing Link*, p. 52

Australopithecines

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The oldest find of *Australopithecus* skeletons is from the Hadar Lake near the Awash River in Ethiopia by Johanson and Taieb⁶ (1974-75). It is about three million years old. The discovery of a part of a leg-bone and the lower end of a thigh-bone indicated that these were of a bipedal creature.

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⁶ Johanson, D.G. *Family of Early Man*, *National Geographic*, Dec. 1976

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The jaws were rounded in front, and the front and back teeth were evenly proportioned. A skeleton of a female was also discovered. The angle of the thigh-bone and the flattened surface of its knee-joint end prove that she walked on two legs. The narrow incisors of the lower jaw resemble those of *Australopithecus*. Close to the remains of a child lay those of five adults, near the lake margin. It seems that a family of six got buried by a flash flood.

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From the point of view of age, the next finds are from Transvaal, *Australopithecus africanus* and *A. robustus*, about two million years old (Dart, 1924; Broom, 1936). From the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, *Australopithecus boisei* (1959) and *Homo habilis* (1961), both 1.8 million years old, were discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey. From Lake Turkana in Kenya, a *Homo* skull, two to three million years old, and a 1.5-million-year-old *Homo erectus* skull were discovered by R. Leakey (1975). From Laetali in Tanzania, 3.35- to 3.75-million-year-old *Homo* jaw-bones and teeth were discovered by Mary Leakey (1974-75).

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The subfamily Australopithecinae is divided into two genera, *Australopithecus* and *Paranthropus*.

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*Paranthropus* was more robust, and his height is thought to be between 1.5 and 1.55 metres and his weight about 70 kilogrammes. Some characteristics of his long bones indicate that his posture was not completely erect, and that he carried his head lower than *Australopithecus*. *Paranthropus* persisted for nearly three million years without any further fundamental development, and was adapted to living in closed woodlands, with a vegetarian diet.

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The representatives of the genus *Australopithecus* were more gracefully slight in build; they might have been about 1.2 metres tall, and weighed about 40 kilogrammes. The dentition of Australopithecines comes closest to that of man, with *Dryopithecus* pattern in the relative dimensions of the molars, and especially the small incisors and canines, which do not project above the occlusal line. Dentition suggests that they were omnivorous.

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The profile of the skull has a characteristically shortened face, which is more upright than that of the apes; the brow-ridges are highly developed. The maximum volume of the brain-case of the large anthropoid apes is 480 cubic centimetres. The volume of the Australopithecine brain-case varies between 428 and 530 cubic centimetres. The Australopithecines were bipedal, and moved in more or less erect posture.

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*Homo habilis*. Louis and Mary Leakey (1961) discovered the remains of *Homo habilis* from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. *Homo habilis* was about 1.25 metres tall, and weighed 40 to 50 kilogrammes. According to the dentition, he was omnivorous. His cranium was higher and noticeably rounded at the back of the head. The brain volume of *Homo habilis* was larger than that of an Australopithecine.

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The study of the bones of the foot showed two typical characteristics of man. Firstly, the big toe, which *Homo habilis* was able to move vertically. Secondly, *Homo habilis* possessed a double vault of the sole, a requirement for proper walking which the apes do not have.

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The stone tools found with the skeletal remains of *Homo habilis* are the most primitive of tools, and the hand of the maker must have been very similar to that of man. It has been suggested that *Australopithecus* used tools of natural objects of the shape suitable for the task. *Homo habilis*, however, used naturally shaped objects, and also manufactured real tools.

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The radiometric dating of *Homo habilis* shows that he is between 1.6 and 1.9 million years old. He lived at the same time as *Paranthropus boisei* in the Olduvai Gorge area.

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The findspots of the fossil man in Africa are shown in Fig. 20. It is also noteworthy that two apes which are nearest to man, viz. the chimpanzee and the gorilla, are also found in Africa.

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The Olduvai hominid sites are littered with bones of horses, zebras, and antelopes, some with their skulls cracked open. Shells of snails and tortoises are also found. In the faeces of these hominids are skeletal fragments of mice, shrews, lizards and small birds. This indicates that they were eaten whole. The long bones of animals might have been used as weapons, and the jaws with teeth as scrapers.

References

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Boule, M. and Vallois, H. V. *Fossil Men*, New York, 1957 Chopra, S.R.K. Primatological Studies in India. *Anthropology in India*, Culcutta, 1975 Chopra, S.R.K. Presidential Address, Section of Anthropology and Archaeology, Indian Science Congress, Calcutta, 1974 Chopra, S.R.K. New Fossil *Dryopithecus* Material from the Nagri Beds at Haritalynagar (Himachal Pradesh), India *Contemporary Primatology*, Nagoya, 1974 Edey, A. *The Emergence of Man, The Missing Link*, New York, 1973 Jelinek, J. *Pictorial Encyclopaedia of the Evolution of Man*, London, 1975 Khatri, A.P. The Early Fossil Hominids and Related Apes of the Siwalik Foothills of the Himalayas: Recent Discoveries and New Interpretations. in *Paleoanthropology, Morphology and Paleoecology*. Ed. Russel H. Tuttle. Mouton Publishers, The Hague, Paris, pp. 31-58, 4 plates. 1975 Khatri, A.P. The Pleistocene Mammalian Fossils of the Narmada River Valley and their Horizons. *Asian Perspectives*, Vol. 9, pp. 113-33, 1966 Montagu, A. *Man—his First Two Million Years*, New York, 1969 Peake, H. and Fleure, H.J. *Apes and Men*, Oxford, 1927 Randhawa, M.S. *et al.* *Evolution of Life*, New Delhi, 1969 White, E. and Brown, D. *The First Men*, New York, 1973