Metric Variation in Pliopithecoid Mandibular Molars From the Late Miocene Fossil Locality of Rudabánya, Hungary

Objectives Rudabánya II (RII) is a 10‐million‐year‐old fossil locality in Hungary that preserves a rich assemblage of vertebrate fossils, including specimens attributed to the pliopithecoid Anapithecus hernyaki . The RII dental remains of this stem catarrhine vary in mandibular molar morphology, particularly in the length and degree of tapering of the M 3 . The goal of this study is to quantify metric variation in the RII fossil pliopithecoid mandibular dental sample and determine if it exceeds variation in extant anthropoid taxa. Materials and Methods Using a bootstrapping approach, we compared variation in RII pliopithecoid mandibular molar shape ratios and relative size to a taxonomically broad sample of extant anthropoids. We also used 2D geometric morphometrics to compare the occlusal morphology of the RII pliopithecoid sample with other fossil and extant catarrhines and explored the relationship between mandibular molar shape in the more sexually dimorphic taxa. Results In many cases, the RII pliopithecoid mandibular molars are more variable in shape than the comparative extant samples when comparing ratios of linear measures and in geometric morphometric analysis. In shape space, the RII pliopithecoid mandibular molars are distinct from other pliopithecoids. Mandibular molar size is not related to shape. Discussion We address two potential sources of elevated variation in the RII pliopithecoid sample: (1) a high degree of sexual dimorphism, which exceeds that of extant anthropoid species, and (2) the presence of two pliopithecoid species in the RII fossil assemblage. Sexual dimorphism is not likely to be the cause of elevated variation in this sample.