Primate Phenotypes: A Multi-Institution Collection of 3D Morphological Data Housed in MorphoSource.

The field of phenomics is experiencing unprecedented advances thanks to the rapid growth of morphological quantification based on three-dimensional (3D) imaging, online data repositories, team-oriented collaborations, and open data-sharing policies. In line with these progressions, we present an extensive primate phenotypic dataset comprising >6,000 3D scans (media) representing skeletal morphologies of 386 individual specimens covering all hominoid genera (except humans) and other selected primates. The digitized specimens are housed in physical collections at the American Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of Natural History, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium), the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Stony Brook University.

Design and development of a sensorized hammerstone for accurate force measurement in stone knapping experiments.

The process of making stone tools, specifically knapping, is a hominin behaviour that typically involves using the upper limb to manipulate a stone hammer and apply concentrated percussive force to another stone, causing fracture and detachment of stone chips with sharp edges. To understand the emergence and subsequent evolution of tool-related behaviours in hominins, the connections between the mechanics of stone knapping, including the delivery of percussive forces, and biomechanics and hominin anatomy, especially in the upper limb, are required. However, there is an absence of direct experimental means to measure the actual forces generated and applied to produce flakes during knapping.

Relative leg-to-arm skeletal strength proportions in orangutans by species and sex.

Among extant great apes, orangutans climb most frequently. However, Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) exhibit higher frequencies of terrestrial locomotion than do Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii). Variation in long bone cross-sectional geometry is known to reflect differential loading of the limbs.

Trabecular bone structure of the proximal capitate in extant hominids and fossil hominins with implications for midcarpal joint loading and the dart-thrower's motion.

Objectives: This research examines whether the distribution of trabecular bone in the proximal capitates of extant hominids, as well as several fossil hominin taxa, is associated with the oblique path of the midcarpal joint known as the dart-thrower's motion (DTM).

Materials And Methods: We analyzed proximal capitates from extant (Pongo n = 12; Gorilla n = 11; Pan n = 10; fossil and recent Homo sapiens n = 29) and extinct (Australopithecus sediba n = 2; Homo naledi n = 1; Homo floresiensis n = 2; Neandertals n = 3) hominids using a new canonical holistic morphometric analysis, which quantifies and visualizes the distribution of trabecular bone using relative bone volume as a fraction of total volume (rBV/TV).

Results: Homo sapiens and Neandertals had a continuous band of high rBV/TV that extended across the scaphoid, lunate, and hamate subarticular regions, but other fossil hominins and extant great apes did not.

Beyond Dimorphism: Body Size Variation Among Adult Orangutans Is Not Dichotomous by Sex.

Among extant great apes, orangutans are considered the most sexually dimorphic in body size. However, the expression of sexual dimorphism in orangutans is more complex than simply males being larger than females. At sexual maturity, some male orangutans develop cheek pads (flanges), while other males remain unflanged even after becoming reproductively capable.

Carpal kinematics and morphological correlates of wrist ulnar deviation mobility in nonhuman anthropoid primates.

Objectives: Primates employ wrist ulnar deviation during a variety of locomotor and manipulative behaviors. Extant hominoids share a derived condition in which the ulnar styloid process has limited articulation or is completely separated from the proximal carpals, which is often hypothesized to increase ulnar deviation range of motion. Acute angulation of the hamate's triquetral facet is also hypothesized to facilitate ulnar deviation mobility and mechanics.

More bones of from Flores reveal new insights into giant marabou stork paleobiology and biogeography.

Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) has yielded remains of a faunal community that included small-bodied and small-brained hominins, dwarf proboscideans, Komodo dragons, vultures and giant marabou storks (). Previous research suggested that evolved from a smaller -like Middle Pleistocene ancestor and may have been flightless. However, analyses of this species' considerably expanded hypodigm ( = 43, MNI = 5), which includes 21 newly discovered bones described here for the first time, reveals that the wing bones of were well-developed and this species was almost certainly capable of active flight.

A geometric morphometric approach to investigate primate proximal phalanx diaphysis shape.

Current approaches to quantify phalangeal curvature assume that the long axis of the bone's diaphysis approximates the shape of a portion of a circle (included angle method) or a parabola (second-degree polynomial method). Here we developed, tested, and employed an alternative geometric morphometrics-based approach to quantify diaphysis shape of proximal phalanges in humans, apes and monkeys with diverse locomotor behaviors. 100 landmarks of the central longitudinal axis were extracted from 3D surface models and analyzed using 2DGM methods, including Generalized Procrustes Analyses.

Homo naledi pollical metacarpal shaft morphology is distinctive and intermediate between that of australopiths and other members of the genus Homo.

Homo naledi fossils from the Rising Star cave system provide important insights into the diversity of hand morphology within the genus Homo. Notably, the pollical (thumb) metacarpal (Mc1) displays an unusual suite of characteristics including a median longitudinal crest, a narrow proximal base, and broad flaring intrinsic muscle flanges. The present study evaluates the affinities of H.

Mitogenomics of macaques (Macaca) across Wallace's Line in the context of modern human dispersals.

Wallace's Line demarcates a biogeographical boundary between the Indomalaya and Australasian ecoregions. Most placental mammalian genera, for example, occur to the west of this line, whereas most marsupial genera occur to the east. However, macaque monkeys are unusual because they naturally occur on both western and eastern sides.

Combined organic biomarker and use-wear analyses of stone artefacts from Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia.

Organic biomarker and lithic use-wear analyses of archaeological implements manufactured and/or used by hominins in the past offers a means of assessing how prehistoric peoples utilised natural resources. Currently, most studies focus on one of these techniques, rather than using both in sequence. This study aims to assess the potential of combining both methods to analyse stone artefacts, using a set of 69 stones excavated from the cave site of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia).

Temporal shifts in the distribution of murine rodent body size classes at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) reveal new insights into the paleoecology of Homo floresiensis and associated fauna.

Liang Bua, the type locality of Homo floresiensis, is a limestone cave located in the western part of the Indonesian island of Flores. The relatively continuous stratigraphic sequence of the site spans the past ∼190 kyr and contains ∼275,000 taxonomically identifiable vertebrate skeletal elements, ∼80% of which belong to murine rodent taxa (i.e.

The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological and faunal finds at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in light of the revised chronology for Homo floresiensis.

Liang Bua, the type site of Homo floresiensis, is a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores with sedimentary deposits currently known to range in age from about 190 thousand years (ka) ago to the present. Recent revision of the stratigraphy and chronology of this depositional sequence suggests that skeletal remains of H. floresiensis are between ∼100 and 60 ka old, while cultural evidence of this taxon occurs until ∼50 ka ago.

Evolution and function of the hominin forefoot.

The primate foot functions as a grasping organ. As such, its bones, soft tissues, and joints evolved to maximize power and stability in a variety of grasping configurations. Humans are the obvious exception to this primate pattern, with feet that evolved to support the unique biomechanical demands of bipedal locomotion.

Late Pleistocene songbirds of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia); the first fossil passerine fauna described from Wallacea.

Background: Passerines (Aves: Passeriformes) dominate modern terrestrial bird communities yet their fossil record is limited. Liang Bua is a large cave on the Indonesian island of Flores that preserves Late Pleistocene-Holocene deposits (∼190 ka to present day). Birds are the most diverse faunal group at Liang Bua and are present throughout the stratigraphic sequence.

New fossil remains of from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa.

The Rising Star cave system has produced abundant fossil hominin remains within the Dinaledi Chamber, representing a minimum of 15 individuals attributed to . Further exploration led to the discovery of hominin material, now comprising 131 hominin specimens, within a second chamber, the Lesedi Chamber. The Lesedi Chamber is far separated from the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave system, and represents a second depositional context for hominin remains.

Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis at Liang Bua in Indonesia.

Homo floresiensis, a primitive hominin species discovered in Late Pleistocene sediments at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia), has generated wide interest and scientific debate. A major reason this taxon is controversial is because the H. floresiensis-bearing deposits, which include associated stone artefacts and remains of other extinct endemic fauna, were dated to between about 95 and 12 thousand calendar years (kyr) ago.

The evolutionary origin and population history of the grauer gorilla.

Gorillas living in western central Africa (Gorilla gorilla) are morphologically and genetically distinguishable from those living in eastern central Africa (Gorilla beringei). Genomic analyses show eastern gorillas experienced a significant reduction in population size during the Pleistocene subsequent to geographical isolation from their western counterparts. However, how these results relate more specifically to the recent biogeographical and evolutionary history of eastern gorillas remains poorly understood.

The hand of Homo naledi.

A nearly complete right hand of an adult hominin was recovered from the Rising Star cave system, South Africa. Based on associated hominin material, the bones of this hand are attributed to Homo naledi. This hand reveals a long, robust thumb and derived wrist morphology that is shared with Neandertals and modern humans, and considered adaptive for intensified manual manipulation.

Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa.

Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H.

Functional aspects of metatarsal head shape in humans, apes, and Old World monkeys.

Modern human metatarsal heads are typically described as "dorsally domed," mediolaterally wide, and dorsally flat. Despite the apparent functional importance of these features in forefoot stability during bipedalism, the distinctiveness of this morphology has not been quantitatively evaluated within a broad comparative framework. In order to use these features to reconstruct fossil hominin locomotor behaviors with any confidence, their connection to human bipedalism should be validated through a comparative analysis of other primates with different locomotor behaviors and foot postures, including species with biomechanical demands potentially similar to those of bipedalism (e.

Exploring phylogenetic and functional signals in complex morphologies: the hamate of extant anthropoids as a test-case study.

Three-dimensional geometric morphometrics (3DGM) is a powerful tool for capturing and visualizing the "pure" shape of complex structures. However, these shape differences are sometimes difficult to interpret from a functional viewpoint, unless specific approaches (mostly based on biomechanical modeling) are employed. Here, we use 3DGM to explore the complex shape variation of the hamate, the disto-ulnar wrist bone, in anthropoid primates.