Fossil gibbons (Mammalia, Hylobatidae) from the Pleistocene of Chongzuo, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

摘要: Recent fieldwork at Pleistocene cave sites in the Chongzuo area in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has yielded 33 isolated teeth of fossil hylobatids. Comparisons indicate that the teeth can all be referred to a single species of Nomascus, but the material is insufficient to assign it to a particular species. The molars are slightly larger on average than those of extant species of Nomascus, but unlike contemporary great apes from the Pleistocene of southern China, the hylobatids do not seem to have undergone a change in dental size through time. Nomascus is not present in the Chongzuo area today, but historical records indicate that the genus may have been widely distributed across southern China in the recent past.