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Using extant patterns of dental variation to identify species in the primate fossil record: a case study of middle Eocene Omomys from the Bridger Basin, southwestern Wyoming

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Abstract

Patterns of extant primate dental variation provide important data for interpreting taxonomic boundaries in fossil forms. Here I use dental data from several well-known living primates (as well as data from selected Eocene forms) to evaluate dental variation in Middle Eocene Omomys, the first North American fossil primate identified by paleontologists. Measurements were collected from a sample of 148 omomyid dental specimens recovered from Bridger B localities in the Bridger Basin, Wyoming. Most of these specimens have not previously been described. Nonmetric traits were also scored for this sample. Lower molar coefficients of variation range from 4.01 for M2 length (n = 80) to 6.73 for M3 talonid width (n = 57). All of the nonmetric traits scored exhibit less than 100% presence in the overall sample, including traits previously described as representative of Omomys (e.g., P4 metaconids present in 91%, n = 55; M2 pericones present in 80%, n = 15). Dental traits also vary in a set of spatially restricted localities from the same fossil horizon and in a separate, single fossil locality (DMNH 868, P4 metaconids present in 67%, n = 6). An increasing frequency in several premolar traits across time in these more restricted samples suggests an anagenetic change in Bridger B Omomys. However, this degree of morphological variability is consistent with that seen in extant primate species from single locations. Metric variation in this sample is comparable to that seen in other Eocene primates, such as new data presented here for the omomyid Arapahovius gazini from the Washakie Basin, southern Wyoming. Omomys metric variation is also comparable to that found in several samples of well-known extant primates from single localities (e.g., ring-tailed lemurs and gray–brown mouse lemurs). These metric data also correspond to the patterns of variability described in previously published studies of Omomys carteri. In sum, a single species interpretation (O. carteri) for this new Bridger B Omomys sample from southern Wyoming is affirmed, and this study illustrates the usefulness of dental data from extant primates for evaluating primate fossil samples.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Richard Stucky (DMNH), Logan Ivy (DMNH), Kelly Goulette (DMNH), Heather Thorwald (DMNH), Robert Emry (USNM), Robert Purdy (USNM), Pat Holroyd (UCMP), Peter Robinson (UCM), Bert Covert (UCM), and Paul Murphey (UCM) for access to and assistance with the Omomys and Arapahovius specimens in their care. I thank Michelle Sauther for her support, her continued collaboration at Beza Mahafaly, and for her comments on this paper. I thank Bert Covert, Dan Gebo, Paul Murphey, and Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of sections of this paper. I thank the Primates editorial staff and three reviewers (Brigitte Senut, Marc Godinot, one anonymous) for their detailed comments and suggestions, which have strengthened this manuscript. I thank the many workers who have collected fossils in the Bridger and Washakie Basins over the past 100+ years, without whose efforts this study would not have been possible. I thank Kelly Crozier (formerly Inman) for assistance during field work in the Washakie Basin in 2001 and 2002. I thank Vernice Aure for her assistance with data entry. Fieldwork in the Washakie Basin in 2001 was supported in part by the California State University-Hayward (now the California State University, East Bay). I thank the Wyoming BLM and the private landowners of Wyoming for providing access to fossil-bearing localities to the many workers who have collected fossils in Wyoming. I thank Ross MacPhee for access to the AMNH mouse lemur sample. Collection of Omomys data was funded by the University of Colorado William H. Burt Fund and a University of Colorado Department of Anthropology Predissertation Grant. Collection of mouse lemur data at AMNH was supported by Las Positas College and an AMNH Collection Study Grant. Collection of ring-tailed lemur dental data at Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve (2003–2006) was supported by funds awarded to Frank P. Cuozzo by the St. Louis Zoo (FRC 06-1) and the University of North Dakota, and to Michelle L. Sauther by Primate Conservation Inc., the American Society of Primatologists, the Lindbergh Fund, the Saint Louis Zoo, the John Ball Zoo Society, the National Geographic Society, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Data collected from the ring-tailed lemurs at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve between 2003 and 2006 received IACUC approval from the University of Colorado and the University of North Dakota.

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    Frank P. Cuozzo

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Cuozzo, F.P. Using extant patterns of dental variation to identify species in the primate fossil record: a case study of middle Eocene Omomys from the Bridger Basin, southwestern Wyoming. Primates 49, 101–115 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0078-1

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