The comparative paleoecology of Late Miocene Eurasian hominoids

Remains of Late Miocene hominoids increasingly indicate both taxonomic and adaptive diversity. Understanding hominoid paleoenvironments may illuminate the selection pressures relevant to this diversity. Previous analyses of bovid ecomorphology have been applied to understanding hominoid environments. In this study, a new analysis of distal and complete bovid metapodials assigned to five habitats was conducted and applied to several fossil sites including Can Llobateres and Y0311 in the Siwaliks. An ecomorphological framework was also developed for hipparion metapodials and applied to many late Miocene fossil sites.; The distal and complete discriminant models for bovid metapodials reported here performed between 3.8 and 4.1 times better than chance. Compared to prior discriminant models developed for the bovid femur (Scott et al, 1999; Kappelman, 1988), astragalus (DeGusta and Vrba, 2002) and metapodials (Plummer and Bishop, 1994) all results reported here resulted in more robust values of Press's Q statistic and better performance when compared to chance. Habitat scores were developed for hipparions based mainly on metapodial length and the medial-lateral dimension of the metapodial diaphysis. These scores yielded paleoenvironmental interpretations congruent with those already published for well-sampled sites such as Howenegg and provide important evidence regarding late Miocene paleoenvironments.; In total, the results of this analysis indicate two general patterns relevant to late Miocene hominoids. Sites such as Can Llobateres and Rudabanya are marked by lower hipparion diversity, hipparions adapted to closed habitats, and suspensory, frugivorous hominoids. In contrast, a second pattern is evident for locality 12 of the Sinap Formation and Ravin de la Pluie where a diverse and likely abundant hipparion fauna including open-adapted and closed-adapted forms is associated with pronograde, hard object feeding hominoids.