Research On Sexual Dimorphism And Asymmetry In Metapodials And Phalanx Of Macaca Mulatta ( Zimmermann, 1780) In The Taihang Mountains

In the research on the primate fossil, the problem that the fossil is increasingly scarce becomes prominent. There are some difficulties in studying the classification and position. So the purpose is that it can provide references to research the living primates on the morphological characteristics of the bones. In this paper, we mostly research the morphological features of metapodials, the sex difference and the asymmetry of the Macaca mulatta in Taihang Mountains.The sample consisted of more 60 adult metapodials of the Macaca mulatta in Taihang Mountains. The morphological features of metapodials were described in detail and 10 main variables of each metacarpal were measured. All statistical analysis was done using SPSS13.0 for windows and used single factor analysis of variance, multivariate discriminant analysis and so on. The results were as follows:1. Analyse the different morphological features of metapodials to distinguish the left and right of the metacarpals and the metatarsals. Compared with other primates, the morphological characteristics are relevant with their functions. By choosing different variables to discriminant analysis,and being carried back on behalf of the inspection and cross-validated, the discriminant rate is from 95.3% to 97%, showing that two methods were similar. The result showed the variables and the discriminate functions were stable and reliable.The Multivariate discriminant function can effectively identify the unknown metacarpal bone specimens.2. Analyse a single variable or more variables to study the difference of the sex and the side. Different variables have different sex differences. With the analysis of variance of the length metapodials or weight variables, the result was significant between the sexes (P <0.01), but there was no significant difference between the two sides (P>0.05). As for the length or weight of the metopodials and the phalanges, the mean and sort have their own characteristics.3. Explore the relation between the weight of the palm metatarsals and cranial length of the Macaca mulatta, measure the weight of the palm metatarsals, analyse different speed growth, and do the corresponding logarithmic conversion. The results showed that: the weight of the palm metatarsal showed positive allometry, and the changes of the palm metatarsal during growth and development were related to the length of the cranium, and using the weight of the palm metatarsals can speculate its cranial length.4. The results about the asymmetry of the metapodials showed that each metacarpal or metatarsal has fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and directional asymmetry (DA). STA values of the middle cross sectional area of the palm metapodials are relatively large, but FA values of other variables are relatively small. There are different between the sexes on FA values. STA values of the left metacarpals are greater than the right sides'. The SDA values 0f metapodials are both relatively stable and low variability. The findings indicated that the metacarpals'SDA values are greater than the metatarsals'. The differences of the sex about STA and STA in most of the variables are not very significant (P>0.05).