City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Brooklyn College 2012 Evidence for a Grooming Claw in a North American Adapiform Primate: Implications for Anthropoid Origins Stephanie Maiolino Stony Brook University Doug M. Boyer CUNY Brooklyn College Jonathan I. Bloch University of Florida Christopher C. Gilbert CUNY Hunter College Joseph Groenke Stony Brook University How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bc_pubs/76 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] Evidence for a Grooming Claw in a North American Adapiform Primate: Implications for Anthropoid Origins Stephanie Maiolino1*, Doug M. Boyer2*, Jonathan I. Bloch3, Christopher C. Gilbert4, Joseph Groenke5 1 Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America, 2 Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, 3 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, 4 Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America, 5 Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America Abstract Among fossil primates, the Eocene adapiforms have been suggested as the closest relatives of living anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans). Central to this argument is the form of the second pedal digit. Extant strepsirrhines and tarsiers possess a grooming claw on this digit, while most anthropoids have a nail. While controversial, the possible presence of a nail in certain European adapiforms has been considered evidence for anthropoid affinities.