Primitive Old World monkey from the earliest Miocene of Kenya and the evolution of cercopithecoid bilophodonty.

ABSTRACT: Old World monkeys (Cercopithecoidea) are a highly successful primate radiation, with more than 130 living species and the broadest geographic range of any extant group except humans. Although cercopithecoids are highly variable in habitat use, social behavior, and diet, a signature dental feature unites all of its extant members: bilophodonty (bi: two, loph: crest, dont: tooth), or the presence of two cross-lophs on the molars. This feature offers an adaptable Bauplan that, with small changes to its individual components, permits its members to process vastly different kinds of food. Old World monkeys diverged from apes perhaps 30 million years ago (Ma) according to molecular estimates, and the molar lophs are sometimes incompletely developed in fossil species, suggesting a mosaic origin f

SUBMITTER: Rasmussen DT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6442627 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature