Rudimentary Digits in Primates

TH E Primates are among the most generalized of mammals in that they possess five well-developed digits on both manus and pes. While this is true of most members of the order, a few forms nevertheless depart from the ordinal rule. In these species, one or more digits normally are so under-developed that they must be regarded as stunted or even rudimentary. This condition usually is more than merely dimensional in nature, for, as will be shown, it commonly involves external characters, skeleton, and musculature. Such type of stunted digit, normal for a given species, falls into a different category from those anomalous rudiments that occasionally occur in man and other primates as well (see Schultz, 1942). The latter do not lie within the scope of this paper.

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