Skip to main content

Species Discrimination in Proconsul from Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, Kenya

  • Chapter
Species, Species Concepts and Primate Evolution

Part of the book series: Advances in Primatology ((AIPR))

Abstract

Until the 1930s, the Kenyan islands of Rusinga and Mfangano were unknown to the paleontological community. In 1931–1932, L. S. B. Leakey and D. G. Mac-Innes discovered the first fossils at these sites, including a hominoid that eventually came to be known as Proconsul (Hopwood, 1933; Leakey, 1943; Mac-Innes, 1943). These discoveries prompted further expeditions and additional discoveries that ultimately led to a series of papers (e.g., LeGros Clark and Leakey, 1951; LeGros Clark, 1952; Napier and Davis, 1959) that firmly established the genus Proconsul as one of the best known fossil hominoids. Sixty years after the initial discoveries, the amount of fossil material from Rusinga and Mfangano islands has grown dramatically, yet investigators are still in disagreement over the number of species of Proconsul represented at these sites.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Andrews, P.J. 1978. A revision of the Miocene Hominoidea of East Africa. Bull. Br. Mus. (Nat. Hist). 30:85–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, P. J., and Simons, E. L. 1977. A new African Miocene gibbon-like genus, Dendropithecus (Hominoidea, Primates) with distinctive postcranial adaptations: its significance to the origin of Hylobatidae. Folia Primatol. 28:161–169.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beard, K. C., Teaford, M F., and Walker, A. 1986. New wrist bones of Proconsul africanus and P. nyanzae from Rusinga Island, Kenya. Folia Primatol 47:97–118.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bosler, W. 1981. Species groupings of Early Miocene dryopithecine teeth from East Africa.J. Hum. Evol. 10:151–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cope, D. A. 1989. Systematic Variation in Cercopithecus Dental Samples, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drake, R. E., Van Couvering, J. A., Pickford, M. H, Curtis, G. H, and Harns, J. A. 1988. New chronology for the Early Miocene mammalian faunas of Kisingiri, Western Kenya. J. Geol. Soc, Lond. 145:479–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gingerich, P. D. 1974. Size variability of the teeth of living mammals and the diagnosis of closely related sympatric fossil species. J . Paleont 48:895–903.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gingerich, P. D., and Schoeninger, M J. 1979. Patterns of tooth size variability in the dentition of primates. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 51:457–466.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenfield, L. O. 1972. Sexual dimorphism in Dryopithecus africanus. Primates 13:395–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, T. 1982. Small-Bodied Apes from the Miocene of East Africa, Ph.D. Dissertation, University College London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, T. 1986. New fossil anthropoids from the Middle Miocene of East Africa and their bearing on the origin of the Oreopithecidae. Am. J. Phys Anthropol 71:265–284.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hopwood, A. T. 1933. Miocene primates from Kenya.J. Linn. Soc Lond. 38:437–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hutton, J. 1795. Theory of the Earth. William Creech, Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. F. 1982a. Sexual dimorphism in Ramapithecinae. Proc. Natl Acad. Sa 79:209–212.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. F. 1982b. Sivapithecus simonsi, a new species of Miocene hominoid, with comments on the phylogenetic status of the Ramapithecinae. Int. J. Pnmatol. 3:113–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. F., and Simons, E. L. 1983. A reassessment of the relationship between later Miocene and subsequent Hominoidea, in: R. L. Ciochon and R. S Corruccini (eds.), New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry, pp. 577–624. Plenum Press, New York.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, J. 1986. Species recognition and sexual dimorphism in Proconsul and Rangwapithecus. J. Hum. Evol. 15:461–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, J., and Xu, Q. 1991. Extreme sexual dimorphism in a Miocene hominoid. Nature 352:151–153.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, L. S. B. 1943. A Miocene anthropoid mandible from Rusinga, Kenya. Nature 152:319–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Gros Clark, W. E. 1952. Report on fossil hominoid material collected by the British-Kenya Miocene Expedition, 1949–1951. Proc. Zool Soc. Lond. 122:273–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Gros Clark, W. E., and Leakey, L. S. B. 1950. Diagnoses of East African Miocene Hominoidea. Q. J. Geol Soc. Lond. 105:260–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Gros Clark, W. E., and Leakey, L. S. B. 1951. The Miocene Hominoidea of East Africa, in: Fossil Mammals of Africa, British Museum of Natural History, London, 1:1–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leutenegger, W., and Larson, S. 1985. Sexual dimorphism in the postcramal skeleton of New World primates. Folia Pnmatol. 44:82–95.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacInnes, D. G. 1943. Notes on the East African Miocene primates. J . E. Afr Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc. 17:141–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L. B. 1983. The Relationships of the Later Miocene Hominoidea, Ph.D. Dissertation, University College, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L. B. 1991. Teeth, sex and species. Nature 352:111–112

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, L., and Andrews, P. 1984. The phyletic position of Graecopithecus freybergi Koenigswald. Cour. Forsch.-Inst. Senckenberg 69:25–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHenry, H. M. 1986. Size variation in the postcranium of Australopithecus afarensis and extant species of Hominoidea. Hum. Evol. 1:149–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Napier, J. R., and Davis, P. R. 1959. The forelimb skeleton and associated remains of Proconsul africanus, in Fossil Mammals of Africa, Vol. 16, pp. 1–70. British Museum of Natural History, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxnard, C. E. 1983. Sexual dimorphism in the overall proportions of primates. Am. J. Pnmatol. 4:1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan, Y., Waddle, D. M., and Fleagle, J. G. 1989. Sexual dimorphism in Laccopithecus rohustus, a Late Miocene hominoid from China. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 79:137–158.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pickford, M. 1986. Sexual dimorphism in Proconsul, in: M. Pickford and B Chiarelh (eds.), Sexual Dimorphism in Living and Fossil Primates, pp. 133–170. II Sedicesimo, Firenze.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilbeam, D. R. 1969. Tertiary Pongidae of East Africa: Evolutionary relationships and taxonomy. Bull. Peabody Mus. Nat. Hist. (Yale Univ.) 31:1–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plavcan, J. M. 1989. The coefficient of variation as an indicator of interspecific variability in fossil assemblages. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 78:285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, M. D. 1986. Further hominoid postcranial specimens from the Late Miocene Nagri Formation of Pakistan. J. Hum. Evol. 15:333–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruff, C. B., Walker, A., and Teaford, M. F. 1989. Body mass, sexual dimorphism and femoral proportions of Proconsul from Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, Kenya.J. Hum. Evol 18:515–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, A. H. 1969. The Life of Primates. New York: Universe Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Senut, B. 1986. Long bones of the primate upper limb: monomorphic or dimorphic? Hum. Evol. 1:7–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simons, E. L., and Pilbeam, D. R. 1965. Preliminary revision of the Dryopithecinae (Pongidae, Anthropoidea). Folia Pnmatol 3:81–152.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, G. G. 1947. Note on the measurement of variability and on relative variability of teeth of fossil mammals. Am. J. Sci. 245:522–525.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, G. G., Roe, A., and Lewontin, R. C. 1960. Quantitative Zoology. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solounias, N., Teaford, M. F., and Walker, A. 1988. Interpreting the diet of extinct ruminants: the case of a non-browsing giraffid. Paleobiology 14:287–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tague, R. G. 1991. Commonalities in dimorphism and variability in the anthropoid pelvis, with implications for the fossil record.J. Hum Evol. 21:153–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teaford, M. F., Beard, K. C., Leakey, R. E., and Walker, A. 1988. New hominoid facial skeleton from the Early Miocene of Rusinga Island, Kenya, and its bearing on the relationship between Proconsul nyanzae and Proconsul africanus. J. Hum. Evol. 17:461–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., and Pickford, M. 1983. New postcranial fossils of Proconsul africanus and Proconsul nyanzae, in: R. L. Ciochon and R. S. Corruccini (eds.), New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry, pp. 325–352. Plenum Press, New York.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., and Teaford, M. F. 1988. The Kaswanga Primate Site: an Early Miocene hominoid site on Rusinga Island, Kenya.J. Hum. Evol 17:539–544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., and Teaford, M. F. 1989. The hunt for Proconsul. Sci. Am. 260:76–82.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, A., Teaford, M. F., and Leakey, R. E. 1986. New information concerning the Rl 14 Proconsul site, Rusinga Island, Kenya, in: J. Else and P. Lee (eds.), Primate Evolution pp. 143–149. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. V. 1991. Functional Anatomy of the Lower Back and Pelvis of the Miocene Hominoid Proconsul nyanzae from Mfangano Island, Kenya. Ph.D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. V., Walker, A., and Teaford, M. F. 1991. Proconsul did not have a tail. J . Hum. Evol 21:215–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, B. A. 1976. The nature and basis of sexual dimorphism in the primate skeleton. J . Zool. Lond. 180:15–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yablokov, A. V. 1974. Variability of Mammals, Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Teaford, M.F., Walker, A., Mugaisi, G.S. (1993). Species Discrimination in Proconsul from Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, Kenya. In: Kimbel, W.H., Martin, L.B. (eds) Species, Species Concepts and Primate Evolution. Advances in Primatology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3745-2_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3745-2_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-3747-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-3745-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics