AFRICAN FOSSIL TALI - FURTHER MULTIVARIATE MORPHOMETRIC STUDIES

Analysis of measurememtns from the tali of 21 individual fossil primates (Ateles, Macaca, Papio, Colobus, Hylobates, Pongo, Pan, Gorilla and Homo) from Africa shows that the specimens fall into 5 clearly defined groups. These specimens were included as groups along with extant species in a subsequent canonical analysis allowing the fossils to play their part in the determination of the canonical separations. The 5 fossil groups lie in a part of the canonical space not occupied by any extant African primate. Their positions are between the envelope of Asiatic apes (Hylobates and Pongo) and the envelope of African forms near the edge which contains Pan and Papio. One fossil group is so similar to Hylobates that its talus may have functioned in locomotion in a parallel manner. Others lie near to Pongo in directions proceeding towards Pan and Papio and this similarity may indicate remnants of morphological adaptation for climbing in these fossils. Individual specimens are closer to one or another extant group and this considerable spread suggests that the locomotor adaptations as evidenced by talar morphology, of the primate fauna in Africa, may have been very different from those of the present. This is not inconsistent with the different habitats, floras and non-primate faunas that may have characterized the East African scene at these earlier times. Particular fossils from Olduvai and Kromodraai, supposed to be australopithecine and therefore bipeds, are totally different from man in their talar morphology and essentially rather similar to most of the other fossil tali examined.