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Vertebrata Palasiatica ›› 2010, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (3): 275-280.

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A partial skeleton of Macaca (Mammalia, Primates) from the Early Pleistocene Queque Cave site, Chongzuo, Guangxi, South China

ZHANG Ying-Qi, JIN Chang-Zhu, TAKAI Masanaru   

  • Online:2010-09-15 Published:2010-09-15

广西崇左缺缺洞早更新世猕猴骨架化石初步报道

张颖奇,金昌柱,高井正成   

Abstract: Queque Cave is located in the Chongzuo Eco-Park(Chongzuo Biodiversity Research Institu-te, Peking University), Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regio (22°16'22"N,107°30'22"E). The cave occurs in Wuming Mountain, where the Sanhe Cave site is also located(Jin et al.,2009b). The altitude of the entrance is 202 m above sea level, about 7 meters lower than the entrance of the Sanhe Cave. The sediments in the Queque Cave, like those in the Sanhe Cave, accordingly fall into the 5h Early Pleistocene horizon previously revealed in the Chongzuo area(Jin et al.,2009a,b). Four field seasons of excavation at the Queque Cavesite during 2007-2009 unearthed a large number and wide variety of fossils, representing bothlarge and small mammals. Among the taxa that have been recovered are at least two great apes, Gigantopithecus blackhi and Pongo sp, and at least three Old World monkey species. Nearly all of these primate remains from the Queque Cave are gnathodental, including cranial and mandibular fragments but consisting mostly of isolated teeth. In December 2008,a partial macaque skeletonbelonging to an aged male individual and preserving a nearly complete mandible, all 7 cervical vertebrae and 9 thoracic vertebrae, both forelimbs,a part of the right hindlimb, and most of the carpals, tarsals, metapodials and phalanges was unearthed from the sediments of the Queque Cave. This is the most complete skeleton of a fossil macaque so far discovered in China. In this paper, only the mandible is briefly described and compared with the known fossil macaque species in China, due to the scarcity of postcranial fossil material for comparison.A more detailed study of the postcranial macaque bones and the other fossils from the Queque Cave will be published elsewhere.

摘要: 初步报道了缺缺洞发现的猕猴化石。新材料为一具雄性老年猕猴个体的骨架,保存了几乎完整的下颌、全部7节颈椎、9节胸椎、两侧前肢肢骨、右侧后肢部分肢骨以及绝大部分的腕(跗)骨、掌(蹠)骨和指(趾)骨。这是目前为止中国发现的最为完整的猕猴骨架化石。鉴于化石对比材料的缺乏,仅对下颌及牙齿形态进行了描述,并将之与中国已知各化石种进行了对比。由于中国猕猴属各化石种之间的系统关系尚不明确,暂将这批材料作未定种处理,更加深入的研究将另文发表。