Question

Describe the diversity of ape species in the late Miocene as an example of adaptive radiation, naming at least three relevant species. DDDE, of course.

Answer 1

Toward the end of the Miocene or late Miocene, less cooler conditions prevailed  in the northern hemisphere and this caused extinction of many primate species, although some managed to survive by migrating south into Africa and South Asia conditions were relativelyb warm.It is in the late Miocene that the evolutionary line that lead to hominins became clearly distinct. During the late Miocene. Dryopithecine apes moved into Europe.The chimp and human lineages also diverged by the late Miocene. Global cooling occured in the latter part of the Miocene and this led to the extinction of all ape genera present in the northern latitudes.

The three relevenat ape species in late Miocene were :

New genus of great ape (Nakalipithecus nakayamai ) were known to be discovered from the early Late Miocene of Nakali, Kenya

During the early Vallesian i,e also known as earliest Late Miocene, hominoids diversed and spread wide across Western Eurasia. In the Iberian Peninsula, most hominoids were found to have occurred in the Vallès-Penedès Basin and these were Hispanopithecus laietanus and H. crusafonti.