Dionysopithecus from southern Pakistan and the biochronology and biogeography of early Eurasian catarrhines

New specimens of a small, advanced catarrhine primate from the Manchar Formation in Sind, southern Pakistan, are referred to Dionysopithecus sp. Their age is biochronologically estimated to be close to the early/middle Miocene boundary. Dionysopithecus is considered closely related to, and possibly congeneric with, Micropithecus from the East African early Miocene. The Manchar Dionysopithecus is among the earliest of Eurasian catarrhines. Catarrhines may have first emigrated from Afro-Arabia around 16·5 Ma, coincident with a major short-term eustatic sea level lowering event, and with the earliest records in South Asia of certain other African mammal groups. The first appearances in Eurasia of later, more advanced catarrhine lineages also appear to correlate with episodes of global sea level lowering.