Analyzing Cusps of Old World Primates

Old world primates are primates that are represented today by living monkeys in Africa, Asia, and Europe. A subgroup of these primates are Cercopithecoids. My project analyzes the cusp proportions of maxillary and mandible molars of 3D scans taken of the fossils from 19 extant, or living, species. I use Geomagic software to measure and record data revolving around the size of each molar as well as the length of each molar cusp. The measurements taken help us establish anatomical correlates with known diets that we can they use to predict diets in fossil primates. Once we figure out what the fossil primates are eating, we can use that to reconstruct the paleo environments these fossil monkeys shared with fossil humans. This will help us better understand human paleo habitats.

Supervisor: Andrew Deane
Department: Cell Biology and Physiology