The phylogenetic position ofMahgarita stevensi: protoanthropoid or lemuroid? (original) (raw)
Abstract
This comparative study of the cranial and dental morphology of_Mahgarita stevensi_, which includes description of new fossil material, is designed to address hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic position of_Mahgarita_ with respect to the Anthropoidea and tooth-combed prosimians (Lemuriformes, including Lorisoidea).Mahgarita shares with Oligocene anthropoids and primitive platyrrhines a complex assemblage of structural features that do not occur together in any tooth-combed prosimians; they include a large promontory canal and reduced or absent stapedial canal, a pneumatized petromastoid, a lateral transverse intrabullar septum and probable absence of a free annular ectotympanic, synostosed mandibular symphysis with a transverse torus, a short deep maxilla, maxillomaxillary contact on the inferior orbital margin, an upper canine with a mesial groove, a pronounced nasal spine of the palatine bone, and detailed similarities in occlusal features of the upper molars and other teeth.Mahgarita shares with tooth-combed prosimians several primitive euprimate characters, such as lack of postorbital closure and absence of intrabullar trabeculae. Previous conclusions that_Mahgarita_ is related closely to living strepsirhines were based on a small number of primitive, gradistic features. Cranial characters that have been presented in favor of a tarsiiform-anthropoid clade are analyzed with respect to_Mahgarita_ and primitive anthropoids. The results suggest that, among known prosimians,Mahgarita is the one most closely related to the Anthropoidea.
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- Department of Anthropology, University of California, 90024, Los Angeles, California
D. Tab Rasmussen
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- D. Tab Rasmussen
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Rasmussen, D.T. The phylogenetic position of_Mahgarita stevensi_: protoanthropoid or lemuroid?.International Journal of Primatology 11, 439–469 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02196131
- Received: 30 August 1989
- Revised: 04 April 1990
- Issue Date: October 1990
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02196131