作者
William L Jungers, Laurie R Godfrey, Elwyn L Simons, Prithijit S Chatrath
发表日期
1997/10/28
期刊
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
卷号
94
期号
22
页码范围
11998-12001
出版商
The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
简介
Recent paleontological discoveries in Madagascar document the existence of a diverse clade of palaeopropithecids or “sloth lemurs”: Mesopropithecus (three species), Babakotia (one species), Palaeopropithecus (three species), and Archaeoindris (one species). This mini-radiation of now extinct (“subfossil”) lemurs is most closely related to the living indrids (Indri, Propithecus, and Avahi). Whereas the extant indrids are known for their leaping acrobatics, the palaeopropithecids (except perhaps for the poorly known giant Archaeoindris) exhibit numerous skeletal design features for antipronograde or suspensory positional behaviors (e.g., high intermembral indices and mobile joints). Here we analyze the curvature of the proximal phalanges of the hands and feet. Computed as the included angle (θ), phalangeal curvature develops in response to mechanical use and is known to be correlated in primates with hand …
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Phalangeal curvature and positional behavior in extinct sloth lemurs (Primates, Palaeopropithecidae)
WL Jungers, LR Godfrey, EL Simons, PS Chatrath - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1997