河南新安金丝猴颅骨化石

本文记述了出自河南省新安县游沟村八陡山的一个基本完整的猴类颅骨化石.该颅骨骨缝已全部愈合,牙齿磨耗也重,接近老年个体.新安标本眶间部宽,面部凹陷,表现了明显的金丝猴(Rhinopithecus roxellanae)的特征.像新安这样完整的金丝猴颅骨,除四川万县盐井沟的一个未成年颅骨(R. roxellanae tingianus)外,在我国中原地区尚属首次发现.

A FOSSIL CRANIUM OF RHINOPITHECUS FOUND IN XINAN, HENAN PROVINCE

A fossil monkey cranium collected by the Cultural Centre of Xinan County was given to one of the authors, Hu Changkang in 1976. The matrix adhering to it is hard sandy-clay, grayish yellow in colour. Although the cranium is broken, it is essentially complete (see figure 1, A, B, C and plate I), broken only at the left arcus zygomations. All sutures in the cranium are fused, the premolars and molars preserved are badly worn. Its forehead is low, the temporal lines are far apart, the crista occipitales extends between the external auditory meatis. The upper part of the face is wide and the bridge of the nose is also wide due to the premaxilla bone extending along the nasals up to the orbits. In side view, the face is concave. All these characters indicate the cranium is that of Rhinopithecus. The earliest records of fossil Rhinopithecus in China are from Yanjinggou, Sichuan. The fossil material consists of a cranium, two pieces of maxillas and a fragment of mandible. The cranium found in Yanjinggou was subadult and smaller than that from Xinan, but they are similar to each other in morphology. There are three extant species of Rhinopithecus: R. bieti, R. brelichi and R. roxellanae. The faces of the first two species are shorter than in R. roxsllanae. The specimen from Xinan is like R. roxellanae. The cranium of R. roxellanae from Shennongjia, Hubei (collected by members of "the Investigation Group of Wild Man") is also similar in size (see table 1) and morphology to the fossil from Xinan. The distribution of the three extant species is respectively: R. bieti in Yunnan, R. brelichi in Guizhou and R. roxellanae in Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi. The material found in Xinan, in terms of its size, general morphology, and the distribution of extant Rhinopithecus, belongs to R. roxellanae tingianus, its age is probably Middle Pleistocene, or slightly earlier.