TY - JOUR
T1 - Oldest known cranium of a juvenile New World monkey (Early Miocene, Patagonia, Argentina)
T2 - Implications for the taxonomy and the molar eruption pattern of early platyrrhines
AU - Perry, Jonathan M.G.
AU - Kay, Richard F.
AU - Vizcaíno, Sergio F.
AU - Bargo, M. Susana
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Battini family for their generosity during eight field seasons at their Estancia. We thank the 2007 field crew: Leonel Acosta, Juan Carlos Fernicola, Richard Madden, Lucas Pomi, Francisco Prevosti, and Néstor Toledo. We thank the Museo Regional Provincial ‘Padre M. J. Molina’ (Rio Gallegos), the Museo Argentino de Ciencas Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ (Buenos Aires), and the Museo de la Plata for allowing us to study specimens in their care. We thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments led to substantial improvements in the manuscript. This project was funded by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 0143), CONICET (PIP 1054), UNLP (N647) to SFV; NSF (BCS-0851272) to RFK, a National Geographic Society grant to SFV; and research funds from Duke University and Midwestern University to RFK and JMGP, respectively.
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - A juvenile cranium of Homunculus patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a from the late Early Miocene of Santa Cruz Province (Argentina) provides the first evidence of developing cranial anatomy for any fossil platyrrhine. The specimen preserves the rostral part of the cranium with deciduous and permanent alveoli and teeth. The dental eruption sequence in the new specimen and a reassessment of eruption patterns in living and fossil platyrrhines suggest that the ancestral platyrrhine pattern of tooth replacement was for the permanent incisors to erupt before M1, not an accelerated molar eruption (before the incisors) as recently proposed.Two genera and species of Santacrucian monkeys are now generally recognized: H.patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a and Killikaike blakei Tejedor etal., 2006. Taxonomic allocation of Santacrucian monkeys to these species encounters two obstacles: 1) the (now lost) holotype and a recently proposed neotype of H.patagonicus are mandibles from different localities and different geologic members of the Santa Cruz Formation, separated by approximately 0.7 million years, whereas the holotype of K.blakei is a rostral part of a cranium without a mandible 2) no Santacrucian monkey with associated cranium and mandible has ever been found. Bearing in mind these uncertainties, our examination of the new specimen as well as other cranial specimens of Santacrucian monkeys establishes the overall dental and cranial similarity between the holotype of Killikaike blakei, adult cranial material previously referred to H.patagonicus, and the new juvenile specimen. This leads us to conclude that Killikaike blakei is a junior subjective synonym of H.patagonicus.
AB - A juvenile cranium of Homunculus patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a from the late Early Miocene of Santa Cruz Province (Argentina) provides the first evidence of developing cranial anatomy for any fossil platyrrhine. The specimen preserves the rostral part of the cranium with deciduous and permanent alveoli and teeth. The dental eruption sequence in the new specimen and a reassessment of eruption patterns in living and fossil platyrrhines suggest that the ancestral platyrrhine pattern of tooth replacement was for the permanent incisors to erupt before M1, not an accelerated molar eruption (before the incisors) as recently proposed.Two genera and species of Santacrucian monkeys are now generally recognized: H.patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a and Killikaike blakei Tejedor etal., 2006. Taxonomic allocation of Santacrucian monkeys to these species encounters two obstacles: 1) the (now lost) holotype and a recently proposed neotype of H.patagonicus are mandibles from different localities and different geologic members of the Santa Cruz Formation, separated by approximately 0.7 million years, whereas the holotype of K.blakei is a rostral part of a cranium without a mandible 2) no Santacrucian monkey with associated cranium and mandible has ever been found. Bearing in mind these uncertainties, our examination of the new specimen as well as other cranial specimens of Santacrucian monkeys establishes the overall dental and cranial similarity between the holotype of Killikaike blakei, adult cranial material previously referred to H.patagonicus, and the new juvenile specimen. This leads us to conclude that Killikaike blakei is a junior subjective synonym of H.patagonicus.
KW - Diet
KW - Homunculus
KW - Killikaike
KW - Platyrrhini
KW - Primate tooth development
KW - Santa cruz formation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84906942188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84906942188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 25081638
AN - SCOPUS:84906942188
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 74
SP - 67
EP - 81
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
ER -