Dental eruption patterns in Parapithecidae (Primates, Anthropoidea).

Radiographic analysis of mandibular fragments of the Oligocene primates Apidium phiomense and Parapithecus grangeri provides sequences of postincisor development and eruption. Although retaining the premolar eruption sequence (P2 leads to P4 leads to P3), the parapithecids possessed the derived feature of delayed canine appearance which, with other characters of cranial and postcranial morphology, aligns them with Anthropoidea and not Prosimii or platyrrhines.