Hind limb bones and locomotion in the Old World monkeys

Abstract

A functional morphological study of the hind limbs of 49 species of cercopithecids reveals their respective positional behaviour. The result of the principal component analysis, based on sixty indices of the hind limb bones brings Colobus, Cercopithecus (including Miopithecus and Allenopithecus), Cercocebus,and Lophocebus, together, separating them from Macaca, Papio and Theropithecus in the first component. In the second component, colobinae are distinctly separated from the rest, with mangabeys being closest to them. The first component is interpreted to represent the adaptation to the substrata of locomotion, namely, arboreality and terrestriality; and the second their positional behaviour.


Key words/phrases: Functional morphology, hind limb, Old World monkeys, principal component analysis, quadrupedalism


SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science Vol.25(2) 2002: 205-226