The Lacrimal Fossa of Cercopithecoidea, with Special Reference to Cladistic Analysis of Old World Monkey Relationships

Benefit, Brenda R.; McCrossin, Monte L.

doi:10.1159/000156682

Cited by 4 publications

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“…5a, b). The lacrimal fossa is in line with the medial orbital margin, as in extant hylobatids and Victoriapithecus, rather than being clearly within the orbit as in Pan and Gorilla, or clearly anterior to the orbital margin as commonly seen in Aegyptopithecus 9 . Nasion is located about a third of the way down between the levels of the inferior and superior orbital margins.…”

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confidence: 94%

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

Nengo

Tafforeau

Gilbert

et al. 2017

Nature

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and dental development, it possesses no definitive hylobatid synapomorphies. The combined evidence suggests that nyanzapithecines were stem hominoids close to the origin of extant apes, and that hylobatid-like facial features evolved multiple times during catarrhine evolution.Hominoids underwent a major evolutionary radiation during the Miocene epoch, with over 40 widely recognized species in at least 30 genera 1 . Despite this multitude of taxa, only about one-third are known from any cranial remains, and no more than half a dozen preserve any significant portion beyond the face and palate 2 . Thus, much about hominoid cranial evolution remains poorly understood, especially with respect to the ancestral morphology that gave rise to the clade containing extant apes and humans. Importantly, the African fossil record lacks any reasonably complete hominoid crania between 17 and 7 million years (Myr) ago, and no cranial specimens are known at all from between 14 and 10 Myr (refs 3-6), greatly hampering the analysis of hominoid evolution. The KNM-NP 59050 cranium reported here was recovered from Napudet (South Turkana, Kenya) and dated to 13 Myr; it thus falls within this critical yet poorly represented period. The infant specimen is nearly complete, but is missing the deciduous dental crowns (Fig. 1a-d and Extended Data Fig. 1a-f). The unerupted adult dentition, brain endocast, and bony labyrinths were visualized using propagation phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SR-CT; Fig. 1e-h Locality and horizon. Napudet (2° 57′ N, 35° 52′ E), Turkana Basin, Kenya, Emunyan Beds, Brown Bedded Tuffs (Extended Data Fig. 2a).Geological age. 13 Myr. Diagnosis.A large species of Nyanzapithecus, with M 1 significantly larger than in N. pickfordi (P < 0.05), N. harrisoni (P < 0.01), and probably N. vancouveringorum ( Fig. 3a and Extended Data Table 1a; Cranial morphologyKNM-NP 59050 is a nearly complete but somewhat distorted cranium of an infant primate (Fig. 1). The cranium is slightly crushed bilaterally and the posterior portion of the basicranium is both broken and distorted. All the deciduous tooth crowns are broken off, but their roots are preserved. The permanent teeth are unerupted, with the right I 1 being visible in its crypt.The overall dimensions of KNM-NP 59050 are similar to those of Symphalangus crania of equivalent dental age, except for the maxillo-alveolar size, which is similar to Hoolock (Extended Data Table 1b). Relative to overall cranial size, the snout is small as in juvenile hylobatids, and smaller than in extant juvenile hominids . This difference between hylobatids and hominids persists into adulthood (Extended Data Fig. 4b, d), and assuming that N. alesi followed the same pattern, its snout would have been relatively small as an adult, unlike that of Afropithecus and Saadanius.The orbits appear large, but are well within the expected range for an extant juvenile hominoid of its size (Extended Data Fig. 4e). The orbits are slightly taller than wide, which may reflect the bilateral dist...

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confidence: 94%

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

Nengo

Tafforeau

Gilbert

et al. 2017

Nature

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“…The classification of the Cercopithecidae by Strasser and Delson (1987) is used at and above the (sub-) generic level and with a few minor modifications. Table 1 shows the data for the skeletal composition of the lacrimal fossa of the Old World monkeys observed in this study as well as the data from Benefit and McCrossin (1993), which are entered separately in the table because of the different sampling procedures (Green et al, 1980;Korey, 1980;Mouri, 1988). Benefit and McCrossin (1993) sort the lacrimal fossae into three patterns, that is, the maxillalacrimal (M-L), the intermediate (Int), and the exclusively lacrimal (Lac).…”

Section: Allmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 1 shows the data for the skeletal composition of the lacrimal fossa of the Old World monkeys observed in this study as well as the data from Benefit and McCrossin (1993), which are entered separately in the table because of the different sampling procedures (Green et al, 1980;Korey, 1980;Mouri, 1988). Benefit and McCrossin (1993) sort the lacrimal fossae into three patterns, that is, the maxillalacrimal (M-L), the intermediate (Int), and the exclusively lacrimal (Lac). While an individual L-LF of the present study can safely be considered to agree with the Lac of Benefit and McCrossin (1993), the procedure to convert the two observations on both sides of a cranium into a single characterization of the cranium, M-L, Int, or Lac, is not explicitly described by Benefit and McCrossin (1993).…”

Section: Allmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present study will supplement the data of the skeletal composition of the lacrimale fossa presented by Benefit and McCrossin (1993) by using an independent sample of 1890 skulls of Old World monkeys. The factors previously proposed to be related to the lacrimal lacrimal fossa will be examined on the basis of the character distribution within the Cercopithecidae.…”

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confidence: 96%

“…Recently, Benefit and McCrossin (1993), using the data of 682 crania of Old World monkeys including those of 66 crania from Forsyth Major (1901), brought the matter back from one of polar opposition to a matter of degree, and warned against the use of the maxilla-lacrimal fossa to assess the subfamily affinity of Old World monkeys.…”

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Distribution of Lacrimal Lacrimal Fossa in Cercopithecids.

Mouri

1994

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Facial anatomy of Victoriapithecus and its relevance to the ancestral cranial morphology of old world monkeys and apes

Benefit

McCrossin

1993

American J Phys Anthropol

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Recently discovered craniofacial fossils of the middle Miocene cercopithecoid Victoriapithecus are described. The frontal, zygomatic, maxilla, and premaxilla anatomy differ from the previously proposed colobine-like ancestral cercopithecoid morphotype in several significant respects. This morphotype was based on the assumption that features held in common by subordinate hominoid and cercopithecoid morphotypes (Colobinae and Hylobatidae) are primitive for Old World monkeys. Cranial similarities between Victoriapithecus, which represents the sister-group of both colobine and cercopithecine monkeys, and the shorter-snouted Cercopithecinae (Macaca and Cercopithecus) indicate that the last common ancestor of Old World monkeys possessed the following features: a narrow interorbital septum, moderately long snout, moderately long and anteriorly tapering premaxilla, large procumbent upper central incisors set anterior to and with longer roots than lateral incisors, moderately tall face below the orbits, teardrop-shaped nasal aperture of low height and moderate width, and probably long and narrow nasal bones. The Victoriapithecus cranium is also characterized by features not present in modern cercopithecids. These include a deep malar region of the zygomatic and the presence of a frontal trigon due to the occurrence of temporal lines that merge with supraorbital costae close to the midline of each orbit and converge anterior to bregma. These features are interpreted as primitive retentions from the basal catarrhine condition as indicated by the occurrence of these features among primitive catarrhines (Aegyptopithecus) and Miocene hominoids (Afropithecus).

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The Lacrimal Fossa of Cercopithecoidea, with Special Reference to Cladistic Analysis of Old World Monkey Relationships

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

Distribution of Lacrimal Lacrimal Fossa in Cercopithecids.

Facial anatomy of Victoriapithecus and its relevance to the ancestral cranial morphology of old world monkeys and apes

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