Summarization: Terrestriality was suggested to have been more common in the past than it is today, according to primate fossil records obtained from many museums around the country. This terrestriality is more prominent amongst cercopithecoid primates. Preference of habitually terrestrial substrates was based on primate forelimb anatomy. Extant large-bodied terrestrial cercopithecine monkeys favor digitigrade hand postures during locomotion. Being able to recognize if a fossil primate habitually adopted digitigrade postures would be most apparent in the terrestrial group. The functional morphologies of primate metacarpals
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Their scientific name is Cercopithecidae and they are in the clade, Catarrhini (Check 2004). Digitigrade means the metacarpals are oriented almost vertical relative to the ground and the metacarpal joints extend to the wrist in a neutral position. It is relatively rare to see digitigrade amongst the extant primates, because the majority of primates are arboreal. Palmigrade is when the metacarpals are oriented almost parallel with the ground and the metacarpal joints are in a neutral position with the wrist extended (Check 2004). Primates that are arboreal live in trees and those that are terrestrial live on the ground. Terrestrial primates have shorter “fingers” in comparison to the total hand length. This does not completely distinguish between habitually digitigrade and habitually palmigrade primates. Terrestriality can be determined by reconstructing the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint morphologies, as well as hand proportions. The first recognizable old world monkeys are known as Victoriapithecids (Patel …show more content…
The methodology of this study was suitable, because of the small sample size and the select species used. Form-functional relationship between cercopithecoid metacarpals and the two different hand postures were evaluated and the goal of differentiation concerning digitigrade and palmigrade was achieved. Future experiments involving hind limbs may be useful to study and see if orthogrady, or up right walking, has any positive effects on non-human primates and the way they communicate (Neufuss et.al
Their scientific name is Cercopithecidae and they are in the clade, Catarrhini (Check 2004). Digitigrade means the metacarpals are oriented almost vertical relative to the ground and the metacarpal joints extend to the wrist in a neutral position. It is relatively rare to see digitigrade amongst the extant primates, because the majority of primates are arboreal. Palmigrade is when the metacarpals are oriented almost parallel with the ground and the metacarpal joints are in a neutral position with the wrist extended (Check 2004). Primates that are arboreal live in trees and those that are terrestrial live on the ground. Terrestrial primates have shorter “fingers” in comparison to the total hand length. This does not completely distinguish between habitually digitigrade and habitually palmigrade primates. Terrestriality can be determined by reconstructing the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint morphologies, as well as hand proportions. The first recognizable old world monkeys are known as Victoriapithecids (Patel …show more content…
The methodology of this study was suitable, because of the small sample size and the select species used. Form-functional relationship between cercopithecoid metacarpals and the two different hand postures were evaluated and the goal of differentiation concerning digitigrade and palmigrade was achieved. Future experiments involving hind limbs may be useful to study and see if orthogrady, or up right walking, has any positive effects on non-human primates and the way they communicate (Neufuss et.al