By Nina G. Jablonski
This precise quantity offers a finished and up to date exam of all features of the biology of the outdated international monkey genus, Theropithecus, which advanced along our human ancestors. This genus is represented at the present time by way of just one infrequent species. The authors discover the fossil background and evolution of the genus, its biogeography, comparative evolutionary biology and anatomy, and the habit and socioecology of the residing and extinct representatives of the genus. The parallels among the evolution of Theropithecus and early hominids are mentioned. There also are chapters of specific value that describe how an leading edge and interesting method of the modeling of the motives of species extinction can be utilized with nice good fortune. This hugely multidisciplinary technique presents a unprecedented and insightful account of the evolutionary biology of this interesting and as soon as hugely profitable team of primates.
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Additional resources for Theropithecus: The Rise and Fall of a Primate Genus
Sample text
Darti, recovered during the 1973 to 1976 field seasons of the International Afar Research Expedition, is important for a number of reasons. First, it is the largest and best preserved of its age that has so far been found in Africa. Secondly, the well-preserved specimens allow unambiguous statements about their morphological and taxonomic status and relationships to later forms found elsewhere on the continent. Thirdly, the specimens, for the first time, clearly link an East African cercopithecoid taxon with one of those from the South African site of Makapansgat.
The area enclosed by the temporal lines and the supraorbital torus forms a shallow supraorbital sulcus that is most deeply excavated just behind the torus at the midline. A low sagittal crest, no more than 1 or 2 mm high, rises just above lambda from the posterior extension of the united temporal lines. The sagittal crest runs posteriorly to near the tip of the occipital protuberance, where the temporal lines curve sharply laterally to join the nuchal crest. The nuchal crest is roughly circular in form and is lightly built, being no more than a few millimetres wide near inion, widening to about 5 mm near its lateral terminations behind the external auditory meati.
Thirdly, the specimens, for the first time, clearly link an East African cercopithecoid taxon with one of those from the South African site of Makapansgat. And fourthly, the association of the monkey specimens with a large sample of other mammalian species, as well as with sedimentary structures, provides the basis for analyzing the habitat preferences of this early form of Theropithecus. The following report presents (1) a brief summary of the geological characteristics of the Hadar Formation, (2) descriptions of the best-preserved specimens of T.