Biomedical subjects

P D Gingerich

Publications and source records attributed to P D Gingerich.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1977

Correlation of tooth size and body size in living hominoid primates, with a note on relative brain size in Aegyptopithecus and Proconsul.

Second molar length and body weight are used to test the correlation between tooth size and body size in living Hominoidea. These variates are highly correlated (r= 0.942, p less than 0.001), indicating that tooth size can be used in dentally unspecialized fossil hominoids as one method of predicting the average body weight of species. Based on tooth size, the average body weight of Aegyptopithecus zeuxis is estimated to have been beteen 4.5 and 7.5 kg, which is corroborated by known cranial and postcranial elements. Using Radinsky's estimates of brain size, the encephalization quotient (EQ) for Aegyptopithecus was between 0.65 and 1.04. A similar analysis for Proconsul africanus yields a body weight between 16 and 34 kg, and an EQ between 1.19 and 1.96.

Animals↗

PubMed1977

New species of eocene primates and the phylogeny of European adapidae.

Restudy of virtually all of the important collections of European Eocene primates of the family Adapidae indicates that 28 valid species in 8 genera are now known, spanning a time period of nearly 20 million years. The biostratigraphic distribution of each species has been studied in the context of established reference levels, and a maximum of four evolutionary lineages are known from any one locality. Ten new species are proposed in the genera Pelycodus (1 sp.), Protoadapis (4 sp.), Periconodon (2 sp.), Anchomomys (1 sp.), and Adapis (2 sp.). Phylogenetic relationships among the species, based on stratophenetic linking, are indicated whenever possible.

Animals↗

PubMed1977

Dental variation in early eocene Teilhardinal belgica, with notes on the anterior dentition of some early tarsiiformes.

Statistical analysis of dental variation in specimens currently placed in Teilhardina belgica from the Belgian locality of Dormaal suggests that these specimens probably represent no more than a single biological species. Within this species sample, most specimens have an alveolus for 'P1' (or the anterior root of P2), but one specimen clearly lacks this alveolus. In the type specimen of Teilhardina belgica, the alveolus for the lower central incisor was only slightly larger than that for I2, a similarity to some other omomyids. The similarities shared by Teilhardina and Eocene Adapidae all appear to be retentions of primitive primate morphology, and thus they do not necessarily indicate any close relationship of early Omomyidae and Adapidae.

Alveolar Process↗

PubMed1973