Dental development and life history in Anapithecus hernyaki.

The sample of Anapithecus from Rudabánya, Hungary, is remarkable in preserving a large number of immature individuals. We used perikymata counts, measurements of root length and cuspal enamel thickness, and observations of the sequence of tooth germs that cross match specific developmental stages in Anapithecus to construct the first composite picture and time scale for dental development in a pliopithecoid (Catarrhini, Primates). We conclude that the age of eruption of M1 in Anapithecus was similar to various macaque species (approximately 1.45 months), but that M2 and M3 emergence were close to 2.2 and 3.2 years, respectively (both earlier than expected for similarly sized cercopithecoids). There may have been little difference in individual tooth formation times between cercopithecoids and Anapithecus, but the degree of molar overlap during M1, M2, and M3 crown development, which is extreme in Anapithecus, is fundamentally different. Overall dental development in Anapithecus was very rapid. Old World monkeys appear derived in lacking significant molar overlap, and hominoids may be derived in having longer tooth formation times, both resulting in longer overall dental development times. This is consistent with the general conclusion that the Pliopithecoidea is an outgroup to the Cercopithecoidea and the Hominoidea. On the other hand, rapid dental formation in Anapithecus may be an apomorphy indicative of an unusually rapid life history or unique pressures related to diet and maturation. Folivory and/or predation pressure may be responsible for generating selection to more rapidly erupt permanent teeth and possibly attain adult body masses in Anapithecus. Whatever the case, Anapithecus, with an M3 emergence of approximately 3.2 years, is dramatically faster than any extant catarrhine of similar body mass. This represents yet another unusual attribute of this poorly known fossil catarrhine.

Primates from Rudabánya: allocation of specimens to individuals, sex and age categories.

Fossil primates have been known from the late Miocene locality of Rudabánya since 1965. Numerous campaigns of collecting, sampling and excavation have been carried out since that time by several teams of researchers, but the sample of primates has never been fully catalogued and published. Here we provide a comprehensive list of all primate specimens from Rudabánya with provenience data and allocation to individuals. At the main locality of R II 16 individuals are attributed to Anapithecus and nine to Dryopithecus, based on dental remains. Anapithecus comes mostly from a layer of gray to black marl and Dryopithecus is found mostly in a less consolidated overlying black mud. However, both taxa are found in both layers. Anapithecus is represented by larger proportions of juveniles and females, and Dryopithecus by more adult and subadult males. Both species are represented primarily by dental remains, but those of Dryopithecus are more commonly associated with mandibles and maxillae, while in Anapithecus most individuals are represented by associated dentitions. Dryopithecus is better represented by postcrania other than phalanges. Anapithecus age and sex frequency distributions are more typical of those of carnivore and chimpanzee prey assemblages than Dryopithecus.

A new reconstruction of RUD 77, a partial cranium of Dryopithecus brancoi from Rudabánya, Hungary.

A newly reconstructed cranium (RUD 77) of the Miocene fossil hominoid Dryopithecus, formerly Rudapithecus (Kretzoi [1969] Symp. Biol. Hung. 9:3-11; Begun and Kordos [1993] J. Hum. Evol. 25:271-286) is presented here. This specimen, from the late Miocene locality of Rudabánya, in northeastern Hungary, consists of portions of the neurocranium, face, and postcanine dentition. Newly recovered portions of the parietal, occipital, temporal, zygomatic, and premaxillary bones, which are described here for the first time, in association with previously described portions of this specimen (Kordos [1987] Ann. Hist. Nat. Mus. Natl. Hung. 79:77-88) make RUD 77 among the most complete and well preserved neurocrania of any Miocene hominoid. Detailed anatomical descriptions and measurements are provided here, along with comparisons to other relatively complete Miocene hominoid cranial remains, and to living hominoids. While a more complete phylogenetic analysis is in preparation based on the sample as a whole, it is suggested here that RUD 77 provides some additional evidence in support of a previous hypothesis that Dryopithecus is more closely related to the African apes and humans than is Sivapithecus.