ABSTRACT
The evidence from gross morphology generally agrees with the molecular evidence, except that it defines the relationships among extant hominoids less precisely. Thick enamel, however, is a character that is shared with the orang-utan as well as with the fossil apes of the Sivapithecus-Ramapithecus group, and an understanding of the relationships between these two groups is essential to the understanding of human relationships. Evidence exists which previously led to the grouping of the great apes as a single group containing the chimpanzee, gorilla and orang-utan. Evidence for such an association comes from the list of shared characters, all of which are interpreted as derived characters uniquely shared between S. meteai and the orang-utan. The characters shared between the orang-utan and S. meteai relate to separate functional complexes of the face and dentition. Sivapitheucs indicus from India and Pakistan can also be linked with S. meteai and the orang-utan on the basis of a newly described skull belonging to this species.
