More on the Ecology of North Indian Ramapithecus

Abstract

LEAKEY¹ has recently disputed my analysis², based on faunal evidence, of the ecology represented by the Nagri formation of the Siwalik Series, northern India. His objections imply that my examination of the fauna did not extend below the familial level, whereas I explicitly stated that my printed observations merely summarized more extensive work which involved examination of the individual genera and species, lists of which can be found in several easily available sources^3–5. Leakey's observations, however, are clearly as superficial as he alleges mine to be. For example, he states that the inference of forested conditions from the presence in the Nagri (in the same exposure as that which yielded Ramapithecus) of lorisid primates is invalid because “there are living lorisids today which are not forest dwellers”. If Leakey had troubled to ascertain the published affinities of the Nagri lorisid, Indraloris, however, he would have found this genus classified within Lorisinae^6,7, whereas the only lorisids which live in open country today are some of the galagines of Africa.