The evolution of human and ape hand proportions
- S. Almécija, J. Smaers, W. Jungers
- BiologyNature Communications
- 14 July 2015
High levels of hand disparity among modern hominoids are revealed, which are explained by different evolutionary processes: autapomorphic evolution in hylobatids (extreme digital and thumb elongation), convergent adaptation between chimpanzees and orangutans (digital elongation) and comparatively little change in gorillas and hominins.
First partial face and upper dentition of the Middle Miocene hominoid Dryopithecus fontani from Abocador de Can Mata (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia, NE Spain): taxonomic and phylogenetic…
- S. Moyà-Solà, M. Köhler, E. Beamud
- Geography, Environmental ScienceAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology
- 1 June 2009
Anatomical and morphometric analyses indicate that the new specimen shows a combination of lower facial features-hitherto unknown in Miocene hominoids-that resembles the facial pattern of Gorilla, thus providing the first nondental evidence of gorilla-like lower facial morphology in the fossil record.
A unique Middle Miocene European hominoid and the origins of the great ape and human clade
- S. Moyà-Solà, D. Alba, J. Fortuny
- Geography, BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 16 June 2009
A male partial face with mandible of a previously undescribed fossil hominid, Anoiapithecus brevirostris gen. et sp.
Orang-like manual adaptations in the fossil hominoid Hispanopithecus laietanus: first steps towards great ape suspensory behaviours
- S. Almécija, D. Alba, S. Moyà-Solà, M. Köhler
- BiologyProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
- 7 October 2007
The retention of powerful grasping and palmigrady suggests that the last common ancestor of hominids might have been more primitive than what can be inferred on the basis of extant taxa, suggesting that pronograde behaviours are compatible with an orthograde bodyplan suitable for climbing and suspension.
Pierolapithecus and the functional morphology of Miocene ape hand phalanges: paleobiological and evolutionary implications.
- S. Almécija, D. Alba, S. Moyà-Solà
- BiologyJournal of Human Evolution
- 1 September 2009
The femur of Orrorin tugenensis exhibits morphometric affinities with both Miocene apes and later hominins.
- S. Almécija, Melissa Tallman, D. Alba, M. Pina, S. Moyà-Solà, W. Jungers
- GeographyNature Communications
- 3 December 2013
The results indicate that both hominin and modern great ape femora evolved in different directions from a primitive morphology represented by some fossil apes, consistent with femoral shape similarities in extant great apes being derived and homoplastic.
A Partial Skeleton of the Fossil Great Ape Hispanopithecus laietanus from Can Feu and the Mosaic Evolution of Crown-Hominoid Positional Behaviors
- D. Alba, S. Almécija, I. Casanovas‐Vilar, J. Méndez, S. Moyà-Solà
- Biology, Environmental SciencePLoS ONE
- 25 June 2012
The combination of quadrupedal and suspensory adaptations in this Miocene crown hominoid clearly evidences the mosaic nature of locomotor evolution in the Hominoidea, as well as the impossibility to reconstruct the ancestral locomotor repertoires for crown hom inoid subclades on the basis of extant taxa alone.
Earliest modern human-like hand bone from a new >1.84-million-year-old site at Olduvai in Tanzania
- M. Domínguez‐Rodrigo, T. Pickering, D. Uribelarrea
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature Communications
- 18 August 2015
The discovery of OH 86 suggests that a hominin with a more MHL postcranium co-existed with Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis at Olduvai during Bed I times.
Fossil apes and human evolution
- S. Almécija, Ashley S. Hammond, Nathan E. Thompson, Kelsey D. Pugh, S. Moyà-Solà, D. Alba
- Biology, GeographyScience
- 7 May 2021
The morphology of fossil apes was varied and it is likely that the last shared ape ancestor had its own set of traits, different from those of modern humans and modern apes, both of which have been undergoing separate suites of selection pressures.
Early Origin for Human-Like Precision Grasping: A Comparative Study of Pollical Distal Phalanges in Fossil Hominins
- S. Almécija, S. Moyà-Solà, D. Alba
- Biology, PsychologyPLoS ONE
- 22 July 2010
The results reinforce previous hypotheses relating the origin of refined manipulation of natural objects--not stone tool-making--with the relaxation of locomotor selection pressures on the forelimbs and suggest that human hand length proportions are largely plesiomorphic, in the sense that they more closely resemble the relatively short-handed Miocene apes than the elongated hand pattern of extant hominoids.
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