The foot of Homo naledi.

Modern humans are characterized by a highly specialized foot that reflects our obligate bipedalism. Our understanding of hominin foot evolution is, although, hindered by a paucity of well-associated remains. Here we describe the foot of Homo naledi from Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, using 107 pedal elements, including one nearly-complete adult foot.

Caudal vertebral body articular surface morphology correlates with functional tail use in anthropoid primates.

Prehensile tails, capable of suspending the entire body weight of an animal, have evolved in parallel in New World monkeys (Platyrrhini): once in the Atelinae (Alouatta, Ateles, Brachyteles, Lagothrix), and once in the Cebinae (Cebus, Sapajus). Structurally, the prehensile tails of atelines and cebines share morphological features that distinguish them from nonprehensile tails, including longer proximal tail regions, well-developed hemal processes, robust caudal vertebrae resistant to higher torsional and bending stresses, and caudal musculature capable of producing higher contractile forces. The functional significance of shape variation in the articular surfaces of caudal vertebral bodies, however, is relatively less well understood.

New evidence for diet and niche partitioning in Rudapithecus and Anapithecus from Rudabánya, Hungary.

Rudabánya is rare among Eurasian Miocene fossil primate localities in preserving both a hominid and pliopithecoid, and as such provides the unique opportunity to reconstruct the nature of sympatry and niche partitioning in these taxa. Rudapithecus and Anapithecus have similar locomotor and positional behavior and overlapping body mass ranges. While prior analyses of molar occlusal anatomy and microwear identify Rudapithecus as a soft-object frugivore, reconstructing the dietary behavior of Anapithecus has been more problematic.

Platyrrhine incisors and diet.

Despite the relatively large size of anthropoid incisors in relation to the remainder of the dental arcade, and their prominent role in the preprocessing of food prior to ingestion, comparatively little is known about the functional morphology of anthropoid incisor shape and crown curvature. The relationship between incisor allometry and diet is well documented for both platyrrhines and catarrhines; however, similar relationships between incisor shape and crown curvature have to date only been reported for living and fossil members of the superfamily Hominoidea. Given the limited taxonomic diversity among the extant members of that group, it is difficult to firmly establish the relative influence of phylogeny and dietary function in the governance of incisor crown curvature.