Abstract
The Reference for the image used in Figure 1A was incorrectly omitted. The reference is: Kingdon, J. 1971. East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa. Vol. I: Primates. Academic Press, London, 446 pp.
Highlights
Extant primates are unusual among mammals in having relatively large brains, large forward facing eyes with high visual acuity, and hands and feet that are specialized for grasping [1,2]
We focus our re-assessment on the following questions: 1) Does variation in body mass explain variation in relative calcaneal elongation across primates? 2) Does variation in locomotor behavior explain variation in relative calcaneal elongation across primates? 3) Is locomotion predictable from calcaneal elongation, and if so, in what contexts? 4) What do ancestral state reconstructions of calcaneal elongation and body mass reveal about the role of leaping in the origin and early evolution of primates? In the course of addressing these questions we further test two specific conclusions of Moya-Solaet al. [7]
Allometry of the Earliest Euprimates In 2007, we collected an isolated calcaneus that we attribute to the notharctine adapiform Cantius ralstoni UF 252980 (Fig. 3) based on size and morphology from the Cabin Fork region [52,55,80,81] of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming
Summary
Extant primates are unusual among mammals in having relatively large brains, large forward facing eyes with high visual acuity, and hands and feet that are specialized for grasping [1,2]. Many strepsirrhine, tarsiers and certain platyrrhine primates are unique among mammals in their ‘‘grasp-leaping’’ locomotion [3]. This arboreal behavior is characterized by the use of grasping feet to anchor on a horizontal or vertical support while the hind limbs extend and accelerate the body in a direction that has some vertical component. Termination of the leap involves relatively precise ‘‘grasping’’ of the support on landing. Such precise grasping requires quick reflexes and exceptional eye-hand coordination [4] (Fig. 1).
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