Rumpfskelettlänge, Allometrien und Körperproportionen bei catarrhinen Primaten

Abstract

For comparisons of recent and fossil catarrhine primates a new parameter for body size, the skeletal trunk length (RS), is introduced. Investigations of intergeneric allometries and proportions of long bones and pelvis of cercopithecoids andhominoids are described.

Gibbons and hominoid ancestry

“…This is consistent with fossil evidence (see below), which shows that for the first eight million years of the known fossil record of apes, the thorax was narrow and deep like that of monkeys. The same argument applies to the 'long' arms in gibbons and great apes; in the latter, their length in the African apes is on the same allometric gradient as that of monkeys (and humans), and while orangutan arms are slightly longer than expected for their body size, it is only the gibbons that have arm lengths outside the allometric gradient (Biegert and Maurer, 1972;Aiello, 1981;Jungers, 1984). We concluded by saying:…”

Size Dependence in Prosimian Locomotion and Its Implications for the Distribution of Body Mass

“…If (as usual in the primatological literature since Mollison [57]; see also Schultz [16], Biegert and Maurer [58], Oxnard [59,60]) limb length is expressed as percent of the trunk length, the proportions of, for example, cheirogaleines or callitrichids may well conceal the actual length of the trunk. The use of body mass instead of body length as a reference would be a more informative basis for an evaluation of the lengths of the trunk and its segments.…”

Size Influences on Primate Locomotion and Body Shape, with Special Emphasis on the Locomotion of ‘Small Mammals’

“…A long trunk yields more progress in a single flexion than a short trunk. If, as usual in primatological literature since Mollison [62] (see also [63,64)) limb length is expressed as a percentage of the trunk length, the proportions of, for example, cheirogalcinac or callithrichids may well conceal the actual length of the trunk.…”