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Phylogeny, Ecology, and Morphological Evolution in the Atelid Cranium

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Abstract

Reconstructing evolutionary relationships of living and extinct primate groups requires reliable phylogenetic inference based on morphology, as DNA is rarely preserved in fossil specimens. Atelids (family Atelidae) are a monophyletic clade and one of the three major adaptive radiations of south and central American primates (platyrrhines), including the genera Alouatta, Ateles, Brachyteles, and Lagothrix, and are diverse in morphology, body and brain size, locomotion, diet, social systems, and behavioral ecology. Molecular phylogenetic relationships of the extant atelid genera are well resolved, yet morphological analyses often support alternative phylogenetic relationships to molecular data. We collected geometric morphometric data from the crania of atelid taxa for phylogenetic analysis of the cranium, cranial base, and face and tested the hypotheses that cranial data maintain a phylogenetic signal, cranial base morphology most closely reflects the atelid molecular phylogeny, and facial and overall cranial morphology are shaped by diet and have experienced greater homoplasy. All analyses supported genus monophyly, and facial morphology maintained a strong phylogenetic signal inferring the atelid molecular phylogeny and a sister relationship between Brachyteles and Lagothrix, whereas results from the cranial base and whole cranium supported AtelesLagothrix and/or AlouattaBrachyteles clades reflecting homoplasy and ecological and dietary similarities. A phylogenetic signal in the atelid face is important for future studies integrating fossil taxa and supports evidence that congruence between molecular and morphological phylogenetics in primates is module and clade specific.

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Acknowledgments

The original research project was devised with Charlie Lockwood and is dedicated to his memory. We wish to thank the editor-in-chief Joanna Setchell, Walter Hartwig, and an anonymous reviewer for their insightful and constructive comments that helped improve this article. A. Bjarnason received partial financial support for the research undertaken from the Department of Anthropology (University College London), the Graduate Research Fund (UCL Graduate School), the Central Research Fund (University of London), and SYNTHESYS. We thank the following institutions for access to their collections: Natural History Museum, London; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna; Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC; Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm; and the Anthropological Institute & Museum of the University of Zurich. We thank Louise Tomsett, Roberto Portela Miguez, Paula Jenkins, Bill Stanley, Bettina Wimmer, Frieder Mayer, Barbara Herzig, Olavi Gronwall, Tea Jashashvili, and Marcia Ponce de Leon for access to collections, and Andrea Cardini, Brian Villmoare, Alfie Rosenberger, Chris Klingenberg, and Jim Rohlf for help and advice.

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Bjarnason, A., Soligo, C. & Elton, S. Phylogeny, Ecology, and Morphological Evolution in the Atelid Cranium. Int J Primatol 36, 513–529 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9839-z

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