A MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF EXTANT AND EARLY MIOCENE FOSSIL HOMINOID MAXILLODENTAL SPECIMENS

It is demonstrated in this paper that before we can hope to formulate phylogenetic relationships between and amongst fossil hominoid material it is first necessary to sex the material accurately. In order to determine whether the morphological and morphometrical variability seen in fossil specimens is due to sexual or inter species dimorphism, it is necessary to calibrate fossil specimens against extant hominoid species' morphologies. Only after fossil specimens have been sexed is it possible to differentiate between morphologies that are related to sex and those that are species specific. This will help reduce fossil misallocation. A morphometric analysis of extant and fossil Proconsul hominoid material is presented. Each fossil specimen has been sexed according to symplesiomorphic sex morphologies as defined in this paper. After the fossil specimens have been sexed they are analyzed using multivariate statistics. The identification of differing sex patterns within the specimens examined here suggests that a new species of Proconsul may have to be considered.