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The labyrinthine morphology of Pronycticebus gaudryi (Primates, Adapiformes)

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Abstract

The publication of a well preserved Eocene primate, Darwinius masillae (Cercamoniinae, Notharctidae), has revived the debate on the phylogenetic relationships of Adapiformes and extant primates (Franzen et al., PLos ONE 4(5):e5723, 2009). Recently, Lebrun et al. (J Anat 216:368–380, 2010) showed that the morphology of the bony labyrinth of strepsirrhine primates conveys a strong phylogenetic signal. The study of labyrinthine morphology may thus bring a new piece of evidence to resolve phylogenetic relationships within a group. The investigation of the labyrinthine morphology of another Cercamoniinae, Pronycticebus gaudryi, reveals no synapomorphy with the labyrinths of modern anthropoids. On the contrary, Pronycticebus is closer in labyrinthine shape to extant strepsirrhines, which supports the hypothesis that the Cercamoniinae and other Adapiformes are the sister group of toothcombed primates.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Pascal Tassy and Christine Argot for giving access to the cranium of Pronycticebus gaudryi. We are grateful to Hugo Dutel and Olivier Lambert, who helped to perform the scan of Pronycticebus, and to the “ATM forms possibles”, for financing that scan. We express our gratitude to Marcia Ponce de León (Anthropological Institute and Museum Zürich) for giving access to extant specimens and to scanning facilities. We thank the staff of beamlines ID19 and ID17 (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility), and the Montpellier RIO Imaging (MRI) platform. We are grateful to Lionel Hautier, Matt Low and Alan Heaver from the University of Cambridge for giving access to the Cambridge specimen of Adapis parisiensis and for performing the CT-Scan. We also are grateful to the following curators: Edmée Ladier (Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Montauban), Nathalie Mémoire (Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Bordeaux), Kurt Heissig (Museum und Institut für Paläontologie, München), Burkart Engesser and Arne Ziems (Naturhistorisches Museum Basel), Jacques Cuisin (Collection des Mammifères et des Oiseaux, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris), Monique Vianey-Liaud, Bernard Marandat and Suzanne Jiquel (Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier). This research was supported by the French ANR-ERC PALASIAFRICA Program (ANR-08-JCJC-0017). We also thank Mark N. Coleman and Timothy M. Ryan for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution (UMR-CNRS 5554), C.C. 64, Université Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France

    Renaud Lebrun

  2. Laboratoire EPHE d’Evolution des Primates and UMR 7207 «Centre de Recherches sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements» (CR2P), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 8 rue Buffon, CP38, 75231, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Marc Godinot & Sébastien Couette

  3. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France

    Paul Tafforeau

  4. AnthropologischesInstitut und Museum, Universität Zürich-Irchel, Zürich, Switzerland

    Christoph Zollikofer

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  1. Renaud Lebrun
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  2. Marc Godinot
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  3. Sébastien Couette
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  4. Paul Tafforeau
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  5. Christoph Zollikofer
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Correspondence to Renaud Lebrun.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Messel and the terrestrial Eocene—Proceedings of the 22nd Senckenberg Conference”

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Figure S1

Landmarks used for geometric morphometric analysis of the bony labyrinth (specimen: Lepilemur ruficaudatus AIM-11054). Grey arrows anteromedial-to-posterolateral and anterolateral-to-posteromedial directions. (PNG 703 kb)

Figure S2

Position within the skull of the left labyrinth of a Adapis parisiensis b Otolemur crassicaudatus, c Tarsius syrichta and d Callithrix jacchus. Left: superior view of the skull and left labyrinth, the superior part of the calvaria being virtually removed. Right stereoscopic lateral view of the left labyrinth within the braincase. In Adapis parisiensis, the labyrinth is positioned in a more lateral position relatively to the brain structures. Arrows in Otolemur, Tarsius and Callithrix, the posterior canal assumes a lower position relatively to the lateral canal. Scale bars 1 cm. Specimens: a Cambridge M 538, b AIM-1841, c AIM-1732; d AIM-10168. (PNG 2862 kb)

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Lebrun, R., Godinot, M., Couette, S. et al. The labyrinthine morphology of Pronycticebus gaudryi (Primates, Adapiformes). Palaeobio Palaeoenv 92, 527–537 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-012-0099-z

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