广西崇左更新世长臂猿化石新材料（英文）

Fossil gibbons(Mammalia, Hylobatidae) from the Pleistocene of Chongzuo, Guangxi, China

近年,在对广西崇左地区第四纪洞穴堆积调查的过程中,从年代贯穿更新世的8个地点采集到了33颗长臂猿游离牙齿化石。记述了这些新发现的长臂化石,并初步确定了其分类位置。形态和测量的对比表明,这些牙齿不超过现生长臂猿种内变异的范围,且都可以归入一个种内。它们与冠长臂猿属(Nomascus)共有的特征组合表明,这些化石可以归入该属。这些特征包括:上臼齿相对宽,舌侧齿带及唇侧齿带痕迹保留率高;M3长度几乎与M1相等;下臼齿狭窄,并保留唇侧齿带退化痕迹。崇左地区的化石长臂猿的臼齿平均比冠长臂猿属中现生种类稍显大。但是崇左地区的游离牙齿化石材料提供的证据并不足以支持将其归入该属中的某一具体种类。与中国南方更新世其他同时代的大型猿类猩猩(Pongo)和巨猿(Gigantopithecus)不同,长臂猿的牙齿大小并没有随时间发生变化。尽管冠长臂猿属在现今的崇左地区并没有分布,但是在历史时期该属曾经广泛分布于中国南方地区。

Recent fieldwork at Pleistocene cave sites in the Chongzuo area in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has yielded 33 isolated teeth of fossil hylobatids.Comparisons indicate that the teeth can all be referred to a single species of Nomascus,but the material is insufficient to assign it to a particular species.The molars are slightly larger on average than those of extant species of Nomascus,but unlike contemporary great apes from the Pleistocene of southern China,the hylobatids do not seem to have undergone a change in dental size through time.Nomascus is not present in the Chongzuo area today,but historical records indicate that the genus may have been widely distributed across southern China in the recent past.