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The Evolution of the Primate Hand pp 373–419Cite as

Hands of Paleogene Primates

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Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

To understand the hand of living primates from an adaptive perspective, data on the morphological pattern of the earliest primates is required. This chapter discusses what is known about the early evolution of primate hands based on fossils of Paleogene plesiadapiforms (potential stemprimates), adapiforms, omomyiforms, and anthropoids. Implications of these data for understanding locomotor transitions during the origin and early evolutionary history of primates is considered.

Though the number of plesiadapiform species known from well preserved postcranial skeletons remains small, known species are similar to extant primates in both their intrinsic hand proportions and hand-to-body size proportions. Nonetheless, the presence of claws and a different metacarpophalangeal form in plesiadapiforms suggests grasping mechanics unlike those of either extant primates or Eocene adapiforms and omomyiforms. We find that non-adapine adapiforms and the basal omomyiform Teilhardina resemble tarsiers and some galagos in having extremely elongated proximal phalanges and digit rays relative to metacarpals. Looking at hand-to-body size proportions, all sampled adapiforms appear to be average compared to extant primate diversity, whereas Teilhardina seems to have had extremely large hands for its size like tarsiers and Daubentonia. Non-adapine adapiforms and omomyiforms exhibit carpal features suggesting more limited dorsiflexion, greater ulnar deviation, and a more habitually divergent (or abducted) pollex than observed plesiadapiforms. Together, features differentiating adapiforms and omomyiforms from plesiadapiforms indicate increased reliance on vertical clinging and grasp-leaping, possibly in combination with predatory behaviors in ancestral euprimates.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge P. Gingerich, G. Gunnell, J. Franzen, U. Thalmann, L. Costeur, C. Argot, P. Tassy, W. Jungers, A. Bergeret, N. Simmons, E. Westwig, D. Lunde, L. Gordon, and P. Holroyd and their respective institutions for access to specimens, measurements, and casts that were critical for this publication. J. Thostenson, M. Hill, I. Wallace, J. Lovoi, J. Butler, A. Garberg, A. Freeman, G. Almor, and S-H Kim provided help acquiring and processing scan data. T. Clarke generated the measurements for phalangeal curvature. C. Orr provided data scans for divergence measurements in catarrhine primates. We thank D. Schmitt, P. Lemelin, T. Kivell, B. Richmond, and three anonymous reviewers for useful feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Support from NSF BCS 1317525, 1440742, and 1440558 and Duke University helped DMB’s work on this project. The Graduate School of Duke University supported GSY’s work on this project. NSF SBE-1028505 (to EJ Sargis and SGBC) and a Leakey Foundation Research Grant supported SGBC’s work on this project. Support from NSF BCS 1440558 helped JIB’s involvement. Data provided by P. Lemelin was essential for the perspectives presented in this work, and we are greatly indebted to him for this resource.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Box 90383, 130 Science Drive, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Doug M. Boyer & Gabriel S. Yapuncich

  2. Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Brooklyn College, CUNY, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Stephen G. B. Chester

  3. Department of Anthropology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Stephen G. B. Chester

  4. New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA

    Stephen G. B. Chester

  5. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Jonathan I. Bloch

  6. UMR 7207 CR2P, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France

    Marc Godinot

Authors
  1. Doug M. Boyer
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  2. Gabriel S. Yapuncich
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  3. Stephen G. B. Chester
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  4. Jonathan I. Bloch
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  5. Marc Godinot
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Doug M. Boyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An, Leipzig, Germany

    Tracy L. Kivell

  2. Division of Anatomy Department of Surgery Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Pierre Lemelin

  3. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA

    Brian G. Richmond

  4. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University , Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Daniel Schmitt

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Boyer, D.M., Yapuncich, G.S., Chester, S.G.B., Bloch, J.I., Godinot, M. (2016). Hands of Paleogene Primates. In: Kivell, T., Lemelin, P., Richmond, B., Schmitt, D. (eds) The Evolution of the Primate Hand. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3646-5_14

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