The evolution of the vestibular apparatus in apes and humans

eLife

Jean Dumoncel¹  Alessandro Urciuoli²  David M Alba²  Frédéric Santos³  Clément Zanolli⁴  Salvador Moyà-Solà⁴  Amélie Beaudet⁵ 

[1] Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa;Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain;Laboratoire AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France;Laboratoire PACEA, UMR 5199 CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France;School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;

关键词: hominoids;    evolution;    phylogeny;    vestibular system;    geometric morphometrics;    primates;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.51261

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Phylogenetic relationships among extinct hominoids (apes and humans) are controversial due to pervasive homoplasy and the incompleteness of the fossil record. The bony labyrinth might contribute to this debate, as it displays strong phylogenetic signal among other mammals. However, the potential of the vestibular apparatus for phylogenetic reconstruction among fossil apes remains understudied. Here we test and quantify the phylogenetic signal embedded in the vestibular morphology of extant anthropoids (monkeys, apes and humans) and two extinct apes (Oreopithecus and Australopithecus) as captured by a deformation-based 3D geometric morphometric analysis. We also reconstruct the ancestral morphology of various hominoid clades based on phylogenetically-informed maximum likelihood methods. Besides revealing strong phylogenetic signal in the vestibule and enabling the proposal of potential synapomorphies for various hominoid clades, our results confirm the relevance of vestibular morphology for addressing the controversial phylogenetic relationships of fossil apes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown