Introduction

Diet is a key factor in primate evolution. It affects adaptation, behaviour and morphology. An understanding of dietary preferences allows inferences to be made about how fossil species interacted with their environment. While the study of dental morphology and gross wear can provide much information about diet, the examination of microscopic wear on the surfaces of teeth can provide more subtle information relating to dietary regime and feeding behaviour in fossil primates. The aim of this chapter is to bring together, from the literature, what is known about the diets of Eurasian catarrhines from the dental microwear evidence. Research to date has focused on the diets and feeding adaptations of Middle and Late Miocene catarrhines from sites in Western and Central Europe and Southern Asia.

Evidence for the diets of catarrhines belonging to the subfamilies Pliopithecinae and Crouzeliinae has been investigated. Pliopithecine species examined include Pliopithecus vindobonensis from Neudorf in Slovakia (MN 6), Pliopithecus platyodon from the Austrian site of Göriach (MN 6), as well as pliopithecid specimens from Castell de Barbera, in the Vallès de Penedes in northeastern Spain (MN 8), whose taxonomic assignment is less certain. One crouzeliine species, Anapithecus hernyaki, from the site of Rudabánya, Hungary (late MN 9), has been analysed to date. The hominoid taxa examined represent four subfamilies of the Hominidae -Dryopithecinae (comprising both the kenyapithecini and the dryopithecini, as well as Oreopithecus), Ponginae and the Homininae. The kenyapithecini are represented by Griphopithecus alpani from Pasalar, Turkey (MN6).