Dominique Gommery

First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya)

Abstract Remains of an early hominid have been recovered from four localities in the Lukeino Formation, Tugen Hills, Kenya, in sediments aged ca 6xa0Ma. 13 fossils are known, belonging to at least five individuals. The femora indicate that the Lukeino hominid was a biped when on the ground, whilst its humerus and manual phalanx show that it possessed some arboreal adaptations. The upper central incisor is large and robust, the upper canine is large for a hominid and retains a narrow and shallow anterior groove, the lower fourth premolar is ape-like, with offset roots and oblique crown, and the molars are relatively small, with thick enamel. A new genus and species is erected for the remains.

Bipedalism in Orrorin tugenensis revealed by its femora

Abstract Three fragments of femora of Orrorin tugenensis , a 6xa0Ma hominid from the Lukeino Formation, Kenya, possesses a suite of derived characters that reveal that the species was habitually bipedal. Detailed anatomical comparisons with modern humans, Australopithecines and Miocene and extant African apes, reveal that Orrorin shares several apomorphic features with Australopithecines and Homo , but none with Pan or Gorilla . Within the Hominidae, the femur of Orrorin is closer morphologically to that of modern humans than it is to those of australopithecines.

Brief communication: new primate remains from the Miocene of Namibia, southern Africa.

Miocene primates from southern Africa are extremely rare. For this reason we wish to place on record several interesting new fossil primate specimens recently recovered from the Miocene sites of Berg Aukas and Harasib in the Otavi Mountain region of northern Namibia. The new finds consist of a virtually complete atlas vertebra from Berg Aukas attributable to the hominoid Otavipithecus namibiensis and two teeth and four postcranial fragments from Harasib referrable to Cercopithecoidea. The atlas vertebra exhibits anatomical characteristics intermediate between those of modern cercopithecoids and hominoids which may be indicative of a transition from pronograde to orthograde postures. The cercopithecoid remains show that the earliest Old World monkeys known from southern Africa were small, approximately the size of vervet monkeys. These new specimens are important because they provide the first evidence relating to possible positional behaviors of Otavipithecus and the earliest fossil record of cercopithecoids from southern Africa.

Description d’un bassin fragmentaire de Paranthropus robustus du site Plio-Pléistocène de Drimolen (Afrique du Sud)

Resume Le site Plio-Pleistocene de Drimolen a livre un fragment de bassin (DNH 43) comportant un os iliaque droit fragmentaire (DNH 43 B) associe au sacrum ainsi que l’arc posterieur de la derniere lombaire (DNH 43 B). La piece appartient a un sujet adulte que l’on peut attribuer a Paranthropus robustus par comparaison avec les autres bassins connus d’hominides plio-pleistocenes (AL 288.1, Sts 14, Sts 65, Stw 431, TM 1605, SK 50, SK 3155b). Le specimen fossile presente une etroitesse de l’ilion au dessus de l’acetabulum, une surface sacree eloignee de ce dernier, une petite surface auriculaire, le sacrum est courbe et possede des angles lateraux superieurs. Plusieurs caracteres anatomiques presents sur DNH 43 attestent qu’il existait une lordose lombaire pour ce fossile. Cette lordose lombaire est specifique aux australopitheques car elle se differencie de celle de l’homme actuel.

Nouveaux restes postcrâniens d'hominoidea du miocène inférieur de napak, ouganda hommage à w. w. bishop

Abstract During reorganisation of the palaeontology collections at the Department of Antiquities and Museums, Kampala by the Uganda Palaeontology Expedition, several primate postcranial remains from Napak, an Early Miocene site, were found. Several large limb bones are attributed to Proconsul major, already known, already known from the locality on the basis of dental and gnathic remains, but hitherto poorly known postcranially. One specimen belongs to a smaller species of hominoid not represented at Napak by teeth and jaws. Both hominoids show quadrupedal and climbing adaptations, but they differ from each other. Thus Proconsul major praticed ‘power’ climbing whereas the smaller hominoid would have been more ‘agile’. In both cases, the hominoids moved frequently between the trees and the ground, and both were well adapted to their palaeoenvironment, which was dry forest. A further important result of this study is that the postcranial remains of r indicat indicate that it was heavier than had previously been envisaged on the basis of its dental remains. It would have weighed about the same as female gorillas, between 75 and 90 kg. The small species weighed about 20 kg.

Un nouveau genre d'hominoide du Miocene inferieur d'Afrique orientale : Ugandapithecus major (Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950)

Abstract It has been known for a long time that the dentition of P. major differs in several features from those of P. africanus (the type species of the genus) and P. nyanzae (including P. heseloni ). Newly discovered postcranial bones from Napak assigned to Proconsul major differ markedly from those assigned to Proconsul species from the Kenyan sites of Koru, Songhor, Mfwangano and Rusinga and reveal that the species concerned differs from Proconsul at least at the generic level. We accordingly erect a new genus, Ugandapithecus , for the species Proconsul major Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950 [18] . A few of the dental and postcranial remains from Moroto, Uganda, are indistinguishable from those from Napak U. major , whereas others, including the Moroto palate (the holotype of Morotopithecus bishopi ) and much of a femur attributed to the latter species differ markedly from it. Thus at Moroto there are two genera of large bodied hominoids. It is not known to which of the genera the Moroto vertebral remains pertain, but they probably belong to U. major .

Les nouveaux restes du squelette d’Ugandapithecus major (Miocène inférieur de Napak, Ouganda)

Resume Lors des missions realisees de l’Uganda Palaeontology Expedition, de 1998 a 2000 dans le Karamoja, plusieurs specimens postcrâniens de primates hominoides miocenes dont une extremite proximale de femur, sans la partie articulaire, et une tete femorale d’Hominoidea de grande taille ont ete decouverts respectivement sur les sites de Napak I pour le premier et de Napak IX pour le dernier. Ces restes sont attribues a Ugandapithecus major recemment decrit sur le site (Senut et al., 2000) . Les nouvelles pieces permettent de completer les donnees connues sur les premiers restes de grands singes de grande taille decouverts par Bishop dans les annees 60 et decrits par Rafferty et al. (1995) , et Gommery et al. (1998) . Les caracteres observes sur les differents fragments postcrâniens suggerent qu’Ugandapithecus pratiquait un grimper arboricole assez lourd. Les comparaisons avec le materiel postcrânien de Moroto montre que Morotopithecus est en fait constitue de 2 taxons, l’un Afropithecus turkanensis (Pickford, sous presse) et l’autre Ugandapithecus major.

Le sacrum de Sterkfontein Sts 14 Q (Australopithecus africanus) : nouvelles données sur la croissance et sur l'âge osseux du spécimen (hommage à R. Broom et J.T. Robinson)

Abstract The fossil sacrum of Sterkfontein Sts 14Q (Australopithecus africanus) was compared with 96 human sacrums of known age so as to reveal its growth stage. Robinson (1972) noticed the presence of an immature trait (unfused intervertebral disc between S1 and S2) in this individual which in other respects is supposed to be a fully matured adult. Our study brings us to define a “sub-adult” category corresponding to a class between the ages of 16 to 25 years in modern humans. Sts 14Q had the same state of maturation, which corresponds to a post-pubertal individual which had not finished its growth concerning the sacral breadth, and probably the pelvic breadth.

Découverte d'un nouveau site à lémuriens sub-fossiles dans les karsts malgaches

abstract The site of ‘Bungo Tsimanindroa’ augments the collection of Archaeolemur from the Malagasy north -west zone. Th is genus is well known but there are many questions about the ecogeographic body size variation and the presence of another species in the region. One of the main interests of this new site is that the entire macrofauna is constituted of the remains of Archaeolemur and that the site has not been disturbed. Some specimens are in anatomical connection.

Les atlas et les axis des Hominidés du Plio-Pléistocène :Morphologie et systématique*

Resume Une revision des atlas et des axis des Hominides du Plio-Pleistocene a revele une morphologie differente de celle des primates actuels. En particulier, la morphologie du tubercule retro-glenoidien de la cavite glenoide de latlas suppose que AL 333.83 appartiendrait au genre Australopithecus , alors que KNM-ER 1825 et KNM-ER 1808 (Z), provenant du Kenya, presentent une morphologie plus humaine. Laxis SK 854 presente un type morphologique qui peut etre attribue aux Australopitheques ≪ classiques ≫. AL 333.101 appartient a un taxon dHominides different et confirme lexistence dun etre a la bipedie permanente qui nest plus associee a une vie partiellement arboricole.