Proconsul heseloni feet from Rusinga Island, Kenya

In the mid 1980s, teams from Johns Hopkins University
and the National Museums of Kenya colleted a minimum
of ten Proconsul heseloni individuals from the
Kaswanga Primate Site (KPS), Rusinga Island, Kenya
dating to the early Miocene. Five of them have nearly
complete right and/or left feet. Because the KPS
individuals died at different stages of development,
their foot and hindlimb proportions through ontogeny
are investigated. Dissimilarities to macaques and
similarities to apes in growth patterns suggest
Proconsul was not born with large feet like macaques
and other non-hominoid primates. The Proconsul
metatarsals were scanned with high-resolution microCT
and in overall strength properties they resemble
Macaca more than Pan. However, the first metatarsal
of Proconsul showed greater resistance to bending and
torsional forces for its length than Macaca, which is
more like Pan. Overall results support previous
interpretations on partial and incomplete Proconsul
pedal fossils, and on other parts of the postcranial
skeleton, that Proconsul was a generalized arboreal
quadruped that grasped tree branches with a long,
strong hallux.

Autorentext
Holly Dunsworth is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at
Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Klappentext
In the mid 1980s, teams from Johns Hopkins University and the National Museums of Kenya colleted a minimum of ten Proconsul heseloni individuals from the Kaswanga Primate Site (KPS), Rusinga Island, Kenya dating to the early Miocene. Five of them have nearly complete right and/or left feet. Because the KPS individuals died at different stages of development, their foot and hindlimb proportions through ontogeny are investigated. Dissimilarities to macaques and similarities to apes in growth patterns suggest Proconsul was not born with large feet like macaques and other non-hominoid primates. The Proconsul metatarsals were scanned with high-resolution microCT and in overall strength properties they resemble Macaca more than Pan. However, the first metatarsal of Proconsul showed greater resistance to bending and torsional forces for its length than Macaca, which is more like Pan. Overall results support previous interpretations on partial and incomplete Proconsul pedal fossils, and on other parts of the postcranial skeleton, that Proconsul was a generalized arboreal quadruped that grasped tree branches with a long, strong hallux.

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