In an analysis of hominoid postcranial variation, 'Evol. Anthrop. 6 (1998) 87' argued that many purportedly unique features of the hominoid postcranium are actually much more variable than previously reported and in many instances overlap with both suspensory (Ateles) and non-suspensory primates. Based on these results, it was concluded that parallelism in the living ape postcranium was a plausible and even likely possibility given the Miocene hominoid postcranial record. However, this analysis did not distinguish whether within-hominoid variability or overlap with non-hominoids involved one or all ape taxa, a distinction which has potentially important effects on the interpretation of results. To address this issue, primate postcranial morphometric data from the trunk and forelimb were reanalyzed using three techniques: cladistic analysis, principle components analysis, and cluster analysis. Results reveal that these postcranial characters distinguish not only suspensory and quadrupedal primates but also discriminate hominoids and Ateles from all other taxa, great apes from lesser apes and Ateles, cercopithecines from colobines, and cercopithecoids from platyrrhines. The majority of hominoid variability and overlap with Ateles occurs with Hylobates humeral head and shoulder joint characters related to brachiation. This suggests that Hylobates' specializations may skew analyses of hominoid postcranial uniqueness and variability, and that great apes are relatively similar in their postcranium.

中文翻译：

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重新评估活的类人颅后变异性：对猿进化的影响。

在对类人颅后变异的分析中，“ Evol。人类。6（1998）87'认为类人化后颅骨的许多据称独特特征实际上比以前报道的多得多，并且在许多情况下与悬栖灵长类动物和非悬存灵长类动物重叠。根据这些结果，可以得出结论，鉴于中新世人类颅骨后记录，活猿后颅骨中的平行性是合理的甚至可能的可能性。但是，该分析并未区分类人猿内部变异性还是与非类人猿重叠，涉及一个或全部猿类群，这一区别可能对结果的解释产生重要影响。为了解决这个问题，我们使用三种技术重新分析了来自躯干和前肢的灵长类动物颅后形态计量学数据：主成分分析和聚类分析。结果表明，这些颅后特征不仅区分悬而未定的灵长类动物和四足的灵长类动物，而且还区分了其他所有类群的类人动物和Ateles，将较小的猿类和Ateles区分为大猿猴，将Colobines区分为cercopithecines，将platyrrhines区分为cercopithecoids。类人猿的大部分变异和与Ateles的重叠发生在Hylobates肱骨头的头，肩关节与肱骨相关的特征上。这表明Hylobates的专长可能会使类人猿后颅骨的独特性和变异性偏向于分析，并且大猩猩的后颅骨相对相似。结果表明，这些颅后特征不仅区分悬而未定的灵长类动物和四足的灵长类动物，而且还区分了其他所有类群的类人动物和Ateles，将较小的猿类和Ateles区分为大猿猴，将Colobines区分为cercopithecines，将platyrrhines区分为cercopithecoids。类人猿的大部分变异和与Ateles的重叠发生在Hylobates肱骨头的头，肩关节与肱骨相关的特征上。这表明Hylobates的专长可能会使类人猿后颅骨的独特性和变异性偏向于分析，并且大猩猩的后颅骨相对相似。结果表明，这些颅后特征不仅区分悬而未定的灵长类动物和四足的灵长类动物，而且还区分了其他所有类群的类人动物和Ateles，将较小的猿类和Ateles区分为大猿猴，将Colobines区分为cercopithecines，将platyrrhines区分为cercopithecoids。类人猿的大部分变异和与Ateles的重叠发生在Hylobates肱骨头的头，肩关节与肱骨相关的特征上。这表明Hylobates的专长可能会使类人猿后颅骨的独特性和变异性偏向于分析，并且大猩猩的后颅骨相对相似。类人猿的大部分变异和与Ateles的重叠发生在Hylobates肱骨头的头，肩关节与肱骨相关的特征上。这表明Hylobates的专长可能会使类人猿后颅骨的独特性和变异性偏向于分析，并且大猩猩的后颅骨相对相似。类人猿的大部分变异和与Ateles的重叠发生在Hylobates肱骨头的头，肩关节与肱骨相关的特征上。这表明Hylobates的专长可能会使类人猿后颅骨的独特性和变异性偏向于分析，并且大猩猩的后颅骨相对相似。