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StW 573 Australopithecus prometheus: Its Significance for an Australopith Bauplan (2021)
Journal Article
Crompton, R., McClymont, J., Elton, S., Thorpe, S., Sellers, W., Heaton, J., Pickering, T., Pataky, T., Carlson, K., Jashashvili, T., Beaudet, A., Bruxelles, L., Goh, E., Kuman, K., & Clarke, R. (2022). StW 573 Australopithecus prometheus: Its Significance for an Australopith Bauplan. Folia Primatologica, 92(5-6), 243-275. https://doi.org/10.1159/000519723

The StW 573 skeleton of Australopithecus prometheus from Sterkfontein Member 2 is some 93% complete and thus by far the most complete member of that genus yet found. Firmly dated at 3.67 Ma, it is one of the earliest specimens of its genus. A crucial... Read More about StW 573 Australopithecus prometheus: Its Significance for an Australopith Bauplan.

On the misidentification of species: sampling error in primates and other mammals using geometric morphometrics in more than 4,000 individuals (2021)
Journal Article
Cardini, A., Elton, S., Kovarovic, K., Strand Vidarsdottir, U., & Polly, D. (2021). On the misidentification of species: sampling error in primates and other mammals using geometric morphometrics in more than 4,000 individuals. Evolutionary Biology, 48(2), 190-220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-021-09531-3

An accurate classification is the basis for research in biology. Morphometrics and morphospecies play an important role in modern taxonomy, with geometric morphometrics increasingly applied as a favourite analytical tool. Yet, really large samples ar... Read More about On the misidentification of species: sampling error in primates and other mammals using geometric morphometrics in more than 4,000 individuals.

Ontogenetic and morphological variation in primate long bones reflect signals of size and behavior (2020)
Journal Article
Nadell, J., Elton, S., & Kovarovic, K. (2021). Ontogenetic and morphological variation in primate long bones reflect signals of size and behavior. American journal of physical anthropology, 174(2), 327-351. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24198

Objectives Many primates change their locomotor behavior as they mature from infancy to adulthood. Here we investigate how long bone cross‐sectional geometry in Pan, Gorilla, Pongo, Hylobatidae, and Macaca varies in shape and form over ontogeny, incl... Read More about Ontogenetic and morphological variation in primate long bones reflect signals of size and behavior.

Baboon biogeography, divergence and evolution: morphological and palaeoecological perspectives (2020)
Journal Article
Elton, S., & Dunn, J. (2020). Baboon biogeography, divergence and evolution: morphological and palaeoecological perspectives. Journal of Human Evolution, 145, Article 102799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102799

Papio originated in the early Pleistocene and diverged into multiple species, six of which are extant. Among parapatric Papio species, there are obvious phenotypic differences that arose during the radiation of the genus. We use data from modern babo... Read More about Baboon biogeography, divergence and evolution: morphological and palaeoecological perspectives.

Insights into the evolution of social systems and species from baboon studies (2019)
Journal Article
Fischer, J., Higham, J. P., Alberts, S. C., Barrett, L., Beehner, J. C., Bergman, T. J., Carter, A. J., Collins, A., Elton, S., Fagot, J., Ferreira da Silva, M. J., Hammerschmidt, K., Henzi, P., Jolly, C. J., Knauf, S., Kopp, G. H., Rogers, J., Roos, C., Ross, C., Seyfarth, R. M., …Zinner, D. (2019). Insights into the evolution of social systems and species from baboon studies. eLife, 8, Article e50989. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.50989

Baboons, members of the genus Papio, comprise six closely related species distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southwest Arabia. The species exhibit more ecological flexibility and a wider range of social systems than many other primates. Th... Read More about Insights into the evolution of social systems and species from baboon studies.

Is there a "Wainer's rule"? Testing which sex varies most as an example analysis using GueSDat, the free Guenon Skull Database (2017)
Journal Article
Cardini, A., & Elton, S. (2017). Is there a "Wainer's rule"? Testing which sex varies most as an example analysis using GueSDat, the free Guenon Skull Database. Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy, 28(2), 147-156. https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix-28.2-12139

The distinguished statistician Howard Wainer claimed that larger phenotypic variance in males might be a general occurrence in mammals. We called this putative pattern 'Wainer's rule' and employed a dataset of more than 1300 specimens, each measured... Read More about Is there a "Wainer's rule"? Testing which sex varies most as an example analysis using GueSDat, the free Guenon Skull Database.

Pliocene primates (2017)
Book Chapter
Elton, S. (2017). Pliocene primates. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0476

The Pliocene fossil record is dominated by Old World monkeys and hominins. Pliocene lemur, loris, tarsier, New World monkey, and great ape fossils are nonexistent, and very few fossils of galagos and gibbons have been found. All known Pliocene primat... Read More about Pliocene primates.

Palaeoenvironmental and sea-level change (2017)
Book Chapter
Elton, S. (2017). Palaeoenvironmental and sea-level change. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0481

Ancient environmental and sea-level changes are very likely to have played key roles in primate speciation, extinction, adaptation, and dispersal. Most modern primates are ecologically dependent on trees and inhabit tropical environments, and the sam... Read More about Palaeoenvironmental and sea-level change.

Paleobiology and behavior (2017)
Book Chapter
Elton, S. (2017). Paleobiology and behavior. In A. Fuentes (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of primatology. John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0485

Paleobiology, the study of ancient life, gives us a window onto the habits, biology, and behavior of individuals and species that are now extinct. Although extinct species cannot be observed directly, their paleobiology and behavior can be inferred f... Read More about Paleobiology and behavior.