Morphometrics and hominoid phylogeny: Support for a chimpanzee-human clade and differentiation among great ape subspecies.

ABSTRACT: Taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses of great apes and humans have identified two potential areas of conflict between molecular and morphological data: phylogenetic relationships among living species and differentiation of great ape subspecies. Here we address these problems by using morphometric data. Three-dimensional landmark data from the hominoid temporal bone effectively quantify the shape of a complex element of the skull. Phylogenetic analysis using distance-based methods corroborates the molecular consensus on African ape and human phylogeny, strongly supporting a Pan-Homo clade. Phenetic differentiation of great ape subspecies is pronounced, as suggested previously by mitochondrial DNA and some morphological studies. These results show that the hominoid temporal bone contains a st

SUBMITTER: Lockwood CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC384751 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature