Gamarra Beatriz, Nova Delgado Mónica, Romero Alejandro, Galbany Jordi, Pérez-Pérez Alejandro
Secc. Antropologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Grup d'Estudi de l'Evolució dels Homínids i altres Primats, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Grup d'Estudi de l'Evolució dels Homínids i altres Primats, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Departamento de Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Alicante, 99, 03080 Alicante, Spain.
J Hum Evol. 2016 May;94:13-27. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.01.005. Epub 2016 Mar 11.
Morphology has been widely used for inferring the phylogenies of numerous taxonomic groups. Recent molecular studies performed on extant non-human primates, however, have cast doubt on the reliability of cranial and postcranial characters for characterizing evolutionary affinities. Because molecular evidence is often not available for fossil specimens, detecting phylogenetic signals in anatomical features is of great relevance. Here we have analyzed molar (M1 and M2) crown shape by means of geometric morphometrics in a large sample of both extant and fossil Miocene catarrhine primates to detect the phylogenetic signal in molar morphometry. Results support that molar shape carries a strong phylogenetic signal, mostly at the superfamily level but also to some extent at the family level. Dietary factors, however, appear to have less influence, especially for M2. The Miocene Pliopithecoidea, Cercopithecoidea, and Hominoidea superfamilies clearly grouped according to the expected taxonomic affinities with the extant groups, although some discrepancies were found depending on the tooth considered. Our findings suggest that although molar crown shape can be used as a reliable proxy for establishing taxonomic affinities of catarrhine fossil primates with extant groups, a significant amount of interspecific variation exists, indicative of derived adaptations at the genus or species level.
形态学已被广泛用于推断众多分类群的系统发育。然而，最近对现存非人类灵长类动物进行的分子研究对颅骨和颅后特征用于表征进化亲缘关系的可靠性提出了质疑。由于化石标本通常无法获得分子证据，因此在解剖特征中检测系统发育信号具有重要意义。在这里，我们通过几何形态计量学分析了大量现存和化石中新世狭鼻猴灵长类动物样本的臼齿（M1和M2）冠部形状，以检测臼齿形态测量中的系统发育信号。结果支持臼齿形状携带强烈的系统发育信号，主要在超科水平，但在科级水平也有一定程度的体现。然而，饮食因素似乎影响较小，尤其是对于M2。中新世的上新猿超科、猕猴超科和人猿超科根据与现存类群预期的分类亲缘关系明显聚类，尽管根据所考虑的牙齿不同发现了一些差异。我们的研究结果表明，虽然臼齿冠部形状可以作为确定狭鼻猴化石灵长类动物与现存类群分类亲缘关系的可靠指标，但存在大量种间变异，这表明在属或种水平上存在衍生适应。
