Morphometric variation of extant platyrrhine molars: taxonomic implications for fossil platyrrhines.

ABSTRACT: The phylogenetic position of many fossil platyrrhines with respect to extant ones is not yet clear. Two main hypotheses have been proposed: the layered or successive radiations hypothesis suggests that Patagonian fossils are Middle Miocene stem platyrrhines lacking modern descendants, whereas the long lineage hypothesis argues for an evolutionary continuity of all fossil platyrrhines with the extant ones. Our geometric morphometric analysis of a 15 landmark-based configuration of platyrrhines' first and second lower molars suggest that morphological stasis may explain the reduced molar shape variation observed. Platyrrhine lower molar shape might be a primitive retention of the ancestral state affected by strong ecological constraints throughout the radiation of the main platyrrhine famili

SUBMITTER: Nova Delgado M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4867715 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature