Premium
The functional and classifieatory significance of combined metrical features of the primate shoulder girdle
Author(s) -
Ashton E. H.,
Flinn R. M.,
Oxnard C. E.,
Spence T. F.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1971.tb04538.x
Subject(s) - prosimian , biology , arboreal locomotion , evolutionary biology , shoulder girdle , karyotype , scapula , zoology , primate , anatomy , genetics , chromosome , ecology , lemur , habitat , gene
Contrary to the major pattern of results that emerges when certain “residual” dimensions of the scapula–selected so as to be apparently unassociated with locomotor function–are compared individually in different primate genera, combination of these dimensions by multivariate (canonical) techniques arranges the genera not into categories corresponding with taxonomic divisions, but in a pattern which correlates broadly with the extent to which the forelimb is habitually subject to tensile or compressive forces. When these dimensions are compounded with a series of “locomotor” dimensions– selected so as to be mechanically related to essential locomotor functions of the region– a spectrum of separation is produced which not only highlights the principal divisions of the Anthropoidea into brachiators, semibrachiators (with which are grouped the prosimian hangers), and quadrupeds, but enables a number of subgroups to be more or less clearly distinguished. Thus, for instance, prosimian quadrupeds are, to some extent, differentiated from the arboreal and terrestrial quadrupeds of the Anthropoidea, while prosimian hangers are distinguished from the anthropoid semibrachiators. Man lies clearly apart in a unique plane of the canonical space. This pattern of grouping is fully confirmed when single linkage cluster analysis is applied to the matrix of squared generalized distances derived from the canonical analysis. It is also unaffected when certain genera, for which only small numbers of specimens are available, are included in, or excluded from, the analysis. Such separation into taxonomic subgroups as occurs, appears incidental to this locomotor separation. It is concluded that, in the case of the scapula, general form and proportions are far more closely related to mechanical function than to the accepted taxonomy of the Primates.