Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, MN 224 UK Medical Center, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
J Hum Evol. 2013 Dec;65(6):704-14. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.08.003. Epub 2013 Sep 12.
Rudabánya is rare among Eurasian Miocene fossil primate localities in preserving both a hominid and pliopithecoid, and as such provides the unique opportunity to reconstruct the nature of sympatry and niche partitioning in these taxa. Rudapithecus and Anapithecus have similar locomotor and positional behavior and overlapping body mass ranges. While prior analyses of molar occlusal anatomy and microwear identify Rudapithecus as a soft-object frugivore, reconstructing the dietary behavior of Anapithecus has been more problematic. This taxon has been interpreted to be more folivorous by some, and more frugivorous by others. Here, we use high-resolution polynomial curve fitting (HR-PCF) to quantify and evaluate the mesiodistal and cervico-incisal curvatures of the incisor crowns of Rudapithecus and Anapithecus to identify diet-specific morphological variation in these taxa. Results are consistent with the interpretation that Anapithecus and Rudapithecus were primarily frugivorous and had diets that included similar resource types. However, Anapithecus may have consumed greater amounts of foliage, similar to extant mixed folivore-frugivores (i.e., Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Symphalangus syndactylus), while Rudapithecus generated elevated compressive loads in the incisor region consistent with a specialized role for the anterior dentition in food processing (i.e., removal of tough protective fruit pericarps). We interpret these findings in light of the paleoecology at Rudabánya and conclude that, if these taxa were indeed sympatric, Anapithecus may have used additional leaf consumption as a seasonal fallback resource to avoid direct competition with Rudapithecus. Conversely, Rudapithecus may have relied on less preferred and harder fruiting resources as a seasonal fallback resource during periods of fruit scarcity.
鲁达巴尼亚在保存人类和巨猿化石方面在欧亚中新世灵长类动物化石地点中较为罕见，因此提供了重建这些分类群同域和生态位分化的独特机会。鲁达古猿和阿纳皮瑟古猿具有相似的运动和姿势行为，并且体质量范围重叠。虽然先前对臼齿咬合解剖结构和微观磨损的分析将鲁达古猿鉴定为软质食物果食者，但对阿纳皮瑟古猿的饮食行为的重建则更为复杂。一些人认为该分类群更偏向于食叶，而另一些人则认为它更偏向于食果。在这里，我们使用高分辨率多项式曲线拟合（HR-PCF）来量化和评估鲁达古猿和阿纳皮瑟古猿的门齿冠的近远中向和颈切向曲率，以确定这些分类群中特定于饮食的形态变化。结果与以下解释一致，即阿纳皮瑟古猿和鲁达古猿主要是食果者，其饮食包括类似的资源类型。然而，阿纳皮瑟古猿可能消耗了更多的叶子，类似于现生的混合食叶-果食者（即大猩猩，银白长臂猿），而鲁达古猿在前牙区域产生了更高的压缩载荷，这与前牙在食物加工中的特殊作用一致（即去除坚韧的保护性水果果皮）。我们根据鲁达巴尼亚的古生态学解释了这些发现，并得出结论，如果这些分类群确实是同域的，那么阿纳皮瑟古猿可能会将额外的叶子消耗作为季节性的备用资源，以避免与鲁达古猿直接竞争。相反，鲁达古猿可能会在果实匮乏时期依赖不太受欢迎和较硬的果实资源作为季节性备用资源。
