Mandibular evidence for the presence of extant Colobini in the African fossil record

Piliocolobus Rochebrune, 1877 and Procolobus Rochebrune, 1877 are key members of the primate community from eastern and central Africa but their presence in the fossil record has yet to be documented, hampering our knowledge of their evolutionary history. Using a combination of morphometric ratio, exploratory and discriminant multivariate analyses as well as hierarchical clustering on mandibular teeth, symphysis and corpus shape and dimensions, the phenetic affinity of small colobines from Asbole and Koobi Fora with Piliocolobus and Colobus Illiger, 1811 is demonstrated. This determination provides new evidence for the assessment of the paleobiogeography and evolution of extant African colobines.