Fossil Macaques from Fujisawa and Kisarazu, Kanto district, Japan

Abstract

Fossil specimens of two macaques are reported as Macaca cf. fuscata. 1) Specimens of ‘Fujisawa skull’ were discovered in a late Pleistocene site in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. Its upper facial skeleton, lacking the mandible, was reconstructed based on the three discovered fragments of the cranium. It is difficult to estimate its sex. Its overall size as a whole corresponds to that of the female of the living Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) but its cheek tooth dimensions are relatively large, corresponding to those of male living Japanese macaques. Compared to the skulls of living Japanese macaques, the Fujisawa skull has some unique characteristics, such as a nallow nasal aperture. 2) A right humerus from a middle Pleistocene site at Yarimizu, a suburb of Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture is perhaps the oldest specimen among the fossil macaques of known age in Japan: its age being about three hundred thousand years old. Morphologically it resembles robust humeri of males of the living Japanese macaque.