The World at the Time of Messel Morphology and evolution of the distal phalanges in primates WIGHART V. KOENIGSWALD1, JÖRG HABERSETZER2, PHILIP D. GINGERICH3 1Steinmann Institut (Paläontologie) der Universität Bonn, Germany,
[email protected]; 2Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt am Main, Germany,
[email protected]; 3Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA,
[email protected]. Flat nails and scutiform distal phalanges charac- (DP), and also of their positions and combinations on terize the hands and feet of primates. However, these various digits of the hands and feet. Here we denote display a variety of forms and combinations: distal phalanges of the manus as Mı, Mıı, Mııı, Mıv, Lemuroidea and Lorisoidea have a distinct pedal and Mv; and distal phalanges of the pes as Pı Pıı, Pııı, grooming claw; Daubentonia has additional claws; Pıv, and Pv. Tarsius has two pedal grooming claws; Callithrichidae Scandentia, represented by Tupaia (Fig. 7), are have claws on fingers and most toes. The adapoid characterized by laterally compressed claws with primates Darwinius and Europolemur from Messel large tubercles for the insertion of the flexor tendon have been interpreted both to have and to lack a in all rays (Mı–Mv and Pı–Pv). The claws of Tupaia, in grooming claw (Koenigswald, 1979; Franzen, 1994; contrast to those of Callithrix (Fig. 11), have no lateral Franzen et al., 2009). furrows (Le Gros Clark, 1936; Godinot, 1992). A single two-state character, “presence or ab- sence of claws or grooming claws,” was used to rep- Lemuroidea and Lorisoidea, represented by Indri, resent claws in the cladistic analyses of Seiffert et al.