Date of Award

12-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Frank L'Engle Williams

Second Advisor

Bethany Turner-Livermore

Third Advisor

Nicola Sharratt

Abstract

Members of the papionin tribe of cercopithecoid monkeys have had historically contested taxonomic assignments. Assessments of cranial and molar dimension as well as genetic data have limited potential for determining phylogenetic signals, possibly due to instances of hybridization and notable inter-taxon variation. This study aims to reassess papionin taxonomy by means of establishing a standardized methodology to associate absence or degree of presence of non-metric dental traits of papionin maxillary molars and evolutionary relationships. Images and dental casts of papionin dentition were utilized and the seven traits were given appropriate scores according to the criteria outlined in this study. The results of this analysis posit lingual dental trait expression as the most informative regarding phylogenetic signal while features of the occlusal surface vary more among individuals. Covariance of interconulus and novel mesiolingual accessory feature scores in papionins produced the highest predicted probabilities between extant Papio, possibly supporting a species designation between Papio ursinus and Papio anubis. Results did not support species designation between Parapapio whitei, Parapapio broomi, and Parapapio jonesi, especially when accounting for temporal distribution. This analysis also identified lingual cingulum expression as a means to assess affinity for an ancestral Papio condition in extant baboons, which supports a much earlier divergence of southern African baboon taxa.

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