Analysis of Miocene Hominoid Postcranial Bones

在500-2400万年前的中新世时期，东半球有大量的类人灵长类动物受到辐射。它们之间的关系以及与现存分类群的关系仍然不清楚。它们的功能解剖和运动适应能力明显不同于现存的灵长类动物。这一建议试图通过描述性和功能性分析来描述这种辐射，并通过定义中新世分类群可以被识别为类人科动物或原始卡他类的颅后特征来描述这种辐射。这项研究将继续PI之前对西伯利亚猿、肯雅猿以及最近发现的西米奥斯、图尔卡纳猿猴和非洲猿猴的研究。这项研究将包括对最近收集的标本的研究，以及对拟议研究期间收集的新标本的研究。将对肯尼亚所有已知的小型类人猿的头骨进行功能分析，将中新世卡他犀类与白颈猿进行比较，并探索中新世类人猿中陆生生物的可能标志。

During the Miocene Epoch, 5-24 million years ago, there was an extensive radiation of hominoid primates in the Eastern Hemisphere. Their relationships with each other and with extant taxa are still unclear. Their functional anatomy and locomotor adaptations are clearly different from those of extant primates. This proposal seeks to characterize this radiation by descriptive and functional analyses, and by defining postcranial features by which Miocene taxa may be recognized as hominoids, or as primitive catarrhines. The research will continue the PI's previous studies on Sivapithecus, Kenyapithecus, and the recently discovered Simiolus, Turkanapithecus, and Afropithecus. The study will include studies of recently collected specimens, and on new specimens collected during the proposed research period. Functional analyses will be made of the postcrania of all known small apes from Kenya, comparisons will be made between Miocene catarrhines and platyrrhines, and possible indicators of terrestriality in Miocene hominoids will be explored.