Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 20. Budapest, 1988)

so the sagittal crest of the skull. It may be pointed out on the whole, that the absence of this special longitudinal exostosis within the Rudapithecus group for the present cannot be interpreted as a characteristic trait but as a manifestation of individual morphological variabilitybeing independent of sexual dimorphism. It will be sufficient to refer to the fact that also the second specimen from Pliopithecis vindobonensis (Ind. II, C 39) has not any sagittal crest on its vault (ZAPFE 1960). MORBECK (1983) made reference to the variability of the morphological traits in her descriptive and comparative analysis of the postcranial skeleton from the Rudabánya hominoid finds. The skull of RUD-77 as well as the other remains from this group quite well reveal the osteological polymorphism of the Miocene hominoids in spite of the fact that the different taxa might have developed in the Central-European subcontinent in the process of the adaptive radiation not only according to any chronological sequence, but coexisting simultaneously, too. In this connection a new synthesis of all the existing conceptions towards a more realistic theoretical approximation of Human evolution deserves attention. According to it the main tendencies of an unlimited progressive development have been ensured in anthropogenesis, and the general preconditions of hominization became effective (universalization, autonomization, tendency towards the taxonomic integration, evolution of the systems of information) (ZUBOV 1983, 1985). It must be borne in mind that the genealogical position of the Ramapithecinae appears to be rather controversial (ANDREWS, PILBEAM, SIMONS after KORDOS 1987b, FRAYER 1978, GREENFIELD 1979, KHRISANFOVA 19 87, KORDOS 1985, MORBECK 1983). Recently the problem of the irregularity of Hominoidea-evolution was discussed (KHRISANFOVA 1985). As it is known according to KRETZOI (1975, 1976) the Rudabánya finds reveal some Ramapi thecus-affinity. Nevertheless, the possibility of the fact cannot be denied that the evolutionary morphological potential resulted in different taxonomical levels in the Middle Miocene-Early Pliocene chronological amplitude and that according to the adaptive ontogenetical plasticity the trend of hominization might have begun from the ecosensitive group of sensu lato Dryopithe- cinae (i.e. oldest Ramapi

thecinae) as a common morphological stock. This alternative interpretation is indicated by the find-group of Rudapithecus hungaricus KRETZOI - accepting, at the same time, the necessity of further finds. It must be noted that KORDOS (1985) himself does not contest the common, generalized (dryopithecoid/ramamorph) phylogenetical preliminaries of the morphological traits of Rudapithecus and Ramapithecus. REFERENCES FRAYER, D.W. (1978): The Taxonomic status of Ramapithecus. - Jugoslav, akad. znan. umjet. (Zagreb): 255-268. GREENFIELD, L.O. (1979): On the adaptive pattern of "Ramapithecus". - Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 50: 527- 548. KHRISANFOVA, E.N. (1985): The problem of irregularity in hominoid evolution. - Vopr. Antrop., 75: 67- 83. (in Russian) KHRISANFOVA, E.N. (1987): Oldest periods of hominization. - Itogi nauki i tekhniki, VINITI, Anthropologia, 2: 5-92. (in Russian) KORDOS, L. (1982): The Prehominid locality of Rudabánya (NE Hungary) and its neighbourhood: A palaeogeographic reconstruction. - Földt. Int. évi jel. 1980-ról; 395-405. KORDOS, L. (1985): The First Fifty Million Years. - Gondolat, Budapest, 206 pp. (in Hungarian) KORDOS, L. (1987a): Description and reconstruction of the skull of Rudapithecus hungaricus Kretzoi (Mammalia). - Annls hist. -nat. Mus. natn. hung., 79_: 77-88. KORDOS, L. (1987b): A rudabányai koponyalelet és az emberré válás (The skull-find at Rudabánya and the hominization). - Magyar Tudomány, 5: 359-367. KRETZOI, M. (1969): Geschichte der Primaten und der hominisation. - Symp. Biol. Hung., 9: 23-31. KRETZOI, M. (1974): Towards hominization. - Anthrop. közl., 18: 121-128. KRETZOI, M. (1975): New ramapithecines and Pliopithecus from the Lower Pliocene of Rudabánya in north-eastern Hungary. - Nature, 257: 578-581.