Ramapithecines from China: evidence from tooth dimensions
- 1 November 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 306 (5940), 258-260
- https://doi.org/10.1038/306258a0
Abstract
Data obtained from ramapithecine specimens found in Asia, Africa and Europe have suggested the existence of two major subgroups, Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus, with Ramapithecus having pre-human status. Recently, however, it has been proposed that the fossils all belong to a single group, Sivapithecus, which is more closely related to the apes, in particular the orang-utan. Here we analyse data from a series of similar fossils which have been found in late Miocene coalfields in Lufeng, Yunnan Province, China. These include a number of almost complete jaws and five partial skulls which are more complete than any others so far known. A statistical analysis of the overall dimensions of the large number of teeth included in these finds shows that the differences between the groups previously assigned to Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus are greater than those found between the sexes in the most sexually dimorphic of the living great apes. Within the groups the distribution is bimodal and we suggest each group contains sex subgroups.This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Ramapithecus and hominoid evolutionJournal of Human Evolution, 1982
- The relationships of Sivapithecus and Ramapithecus and the evolution of the orang-utanNature, 1982
- Evolution of the orang-utanNature, 1980
- New Miocene locality in Turkey with evidence on the origin of Ramapithecus and SivapithecusNature, 1977
- RamapithecusScientific American, 1977
- New ramapithecines and Pliopithecus from the Lower Pliocene of Rudabánya in north-eastern HungaryNature, 1975
- Anglo-Saxon and Modern British TeethJournal of Dental Research, 1968
- Preliminary Revision of the Dryopithecinae (Pongidae, Anthropoidea)Folia Primatologica, 1965
- Some quantitative dental characteristics of the chimpanzee, gorilla and orang-outangPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1950
- Preliminary notice of new man-like apes from IndiaAmerican Journal of Science, 1934