Reports

Program No.18-010

Reconstruction of locomotor behavior of Pliopithecus and African fossil apes

NAKATSUKASA, Masato

19th November,2006 - 9th December,2006

I studied postcranial specimens of Pliopithecus and extant suspensory primates (Atelinae and hominoids) at the Anthropological Institute, Zurich University. Morotopithecus vertebrae and hind limb bones were studied at Uganda Museum. In the National Museums of Kenya, postcranial specimens of Early-Middle Miocene hominoids (Proconsul, Afropithecus, Nacholapithecus) were studied. Postcranial specialization commonly observed in Pliopithecus/Atelinae and living apes are apparently products of homoplasy. Comparing with this result, it was analyzed if those similarities between Morotopithecus and living apes are shared derived features or not. I found an interesting feature of the lumbar vertebra of Morotopithecus that has not been discussed by any previous studies.

Zurich Station

Uganda Museum

HOPE Project<>