Hominoid classification

[Ken Kinman]

John,
     That's a big "if".  Either way, I'm sticking with a more stable and traditional classification.  IF you are correct, all I have to do is move the {{Hominidae}} marker earlier in the Pongidae cladistic sequence (classificatory stability is maintained).  Below is the relevant part of the primate classification I posted on TAXACOM (14 December 2004).  Note that Proconsulidae is shown splitting off before Hylobatidae, not with Dryopithecus at the base of Pongidae.

     Anyway, I don't like unnecessary cladistic splitting in cases like this, nor do I like lumping either (the proposal to dump Pan into genus Homo is the most recent and extreme example of that kind).  Long live a paraphyletic Pongidae!!!  It has served us well in the past, and it will continue to serve us well (even though it was brutally dismembered during the war on paraphyly, and the pieces even more unfortunately being classified in many different ways).  Paraphylophobia ---> Cladomania -----> Confusion and Instability.
  ---Cheers,
          Ken Kinman
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       9  Proconsulidae
       ?  Oreopithecidae
      10  Hylobatidae
      11  Pongidae% (sensu lato)
            1  Dryopithecus
            ?  Ouranopithecus
            2  Lufengpithecus
            B  Sivapithecus
            C  Khoratpithecus
            D  Pongo
            3  Gorilla
            ?  Samburupithecus
            4  Pan
            5  Sahelanthropus
            6  Orrorin
            B  Ardipithecus
            7  {{Hominidae}}
     _a_  Hominidae
            1  Australopithecus% (sensu lato)
           _a_ Homo