Browsing by Author "MacLatchy, Laura"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Hominoid Genus from the Early Miocene of Uganda
    (Reports, 1997) Gebo, Daniel L.; MacLatchy, Laura; Kityo, Robert; Deino, Alan; Kingston, John; Pilbeam, David
    Fossils from a large-bodied hominoid from early Miocene sediments of Uganda, along with material recovered in the 1960s, show features of the shoulder and vertebral column that are significantly similar to those of living apes and humans. The large-bodied hominoid from Uganda dates to at least 20.6 million years ago and thus represents the oldest known hominoid sharing these derived characters with living apes and humans
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oligocene and Early Miocene Ruminants (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from Pakistan and Uganda
    (Palaeontologia Electronica, 2005) Barry, John C.; Cote, Susanne; MacLatchy, Laura; Lindsay, Everett H.; Kityo, Robert; Rajpar, A. Rahim
    Late Oligocene and Early Miocene fossil ruminants from Napak and Moroto in Uganda and the Zinda Pir sequence in Pakistan comprise at least eight taxa, including an indeterminate lophiomerycid, ?Gelocus gajensis, Walangania africanus, Bugtimeryx pilgrimi, an indeterminate large cervoid, Progiraffa exigua, Palaeohypsodontus zinensis, and an unnamed bovid. The fossils range in age between 25 and 16 million years old and together with species of tragulids provide evidence for the existence of diverse latest Oligocene and earliest Miocene ruminant faunas in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. The fossils from Pakistan may also document the first appearance and subsequent radiation of giraffes and bovids, two groups that dominate later Neogene and modern herbivore faunas.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Postcranial functional morphology of Morotopithecus bishopi, with implications for the evolution of modern ape locomotion
    (Journal of Human Evolution, 2000) MacLatchy, Laura; Gebo, Daniel; Kityo, Robert; Pilbeam, David
    The large-bodied hominoid from Moroto, Uganda has until recently been known only from proconsulid like craniodental remains and some vertebrae with modern ape like features. The discovery of two partial femora and the glenoid portion of a scapula demonstrates that the functional anatomy of Morotopithecus differed markedly from other early and middle Miocene hominoids. Previous studies have consistently associated the vertebral remains with a short, stiff back and with orthograde postures. Although the proximal femur more closely resembles the femora of monkeys than of apes and suggests a moderate degree of hip abduction, the distal femur resembles those of extant large bodied apes and suggests a varied loading regime and an arboreal repertoire that may have included substantial vertical climbing. The femoral shaft displays uniformly thick cortical bone, beyond the range of thickness seen in extant primates, and signifies higher axial loading than is typical of most extant primates. The glenoid fossa is broad and uniformly curved as in extant suspensory primates. Overall, Morotopithecus is reconstructed as an arboreal species that probably relied on forelimb-dominated, deliberate and vertical climbing, suspension and quadrupedalism. Morotopithecus thus marks the first appearance of certain aspects of the modern hominoid body plan by at least 20 Ma. If the suspensory and orthograde adaptations linking Morotopithecus to extant apes are synapomorphies, Morotopithecus may be the only well-documented African Miocene hominoid with a close relationship to living apes and humans.