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Locomotor Adaptations of Oligocene and Miocene Hominoids and Their Phyletic Implications

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New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry

Part of the book series: Advances in Primatology ((AIPR))

Abstract

For most of this century, discussions of ape and human ancestry have frequently centered on questions of skeletal morphology and locomotor adaptations. The proponents of a close evolutionary relationship between humans and living apes have always based much of their argument on the many “brachiating” adaptations found in the musculoskeletal systems of all living hominoids (e.g., Keith, 1923; Gregory, 1934; Washburn, 1968). At the same time, their opponents emphasized the many ways in which apes showed specialized adaptations for brachiation which were not found in humans (e.g., Wood Jones, 1929, 1948; Straus, 1949). The discovery of skeletal remains for many fossil apes from the Miocene provided what Le Gros Clark (1950) and many others initially perceived as a broadly synthetic solution to the issue of ape—human relationships, but in the long run only complicated the arguments and recalibrated the debate (Fleagle and Jungers, 1982). Thus, for the past three decades, the debate has shifted from mainly neontological comparisons of living apes and humans to true evolutionary investigation of the morphological and temporal relationships among the fossil apes, living apes, and humans.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, 11794, USA

    J. G. Fleagle

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  1. J. G. Fleagle
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paleontology (temporary research appointment), University of California, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    Russell L. Ciochon

  2. Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, 62901, Carbondale, Illinois, USA

    Robert S. Corruccini

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Fleagle, J.G. (1983). Locomotor Adaptations of Oligocene and Miocene Hominoids and Their Phyletic Implications. In: Ciochon, R.L., Corruccini, R.S. (eds) New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry. Advances in Primatology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8854-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8854-8_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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