Juvenile hominoid cranium from the late Miocene of southern China and hominoid diversity in Asia.

ABSTRACT: The fossil ape Lufengpithecus is known from a number of late Miocene sites in Yunnan Province in southern China. Along with other fossil apes from South and Southeast Asia, it is widely considered to be a relative of the extant orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus. It is best represented at the type site of Shihuiba (Lufeng) by several partial to nearly complete but badly crushed adult crania. There is, however, an additional, minimally distorted cranium of a young juvenile from a nearly contemporaneous site in the Yuanmou Basin, which affords the opportunity to better assess the relationships between Lufengpithecus and Pongo. Comparison with similarly aged juvenile skulls of extant great apes reveals no features suggesting clear affinities to orangutans, and instead reveals a morphological pattern l

SUBMITTER: Kelley J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3344983 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature