Soft-tissue characters in higher primate phylogenetics

Recent research has cast doubt on the reliability of bones and teeth for re constructing phylogenetic relationships among higher primate species and ge nera. Herein. we investigate whether this problem is confined to hard tissu es by examining the utility of higher primate soft-tissue characters for re constructing phylogenetic relationships at low taxonomic levels. We use cla distic methods to analyze 197 soft-tissue characters for the extant hominoi ds and then compare the resulting phylogenetic hypotheses with the group's consensus molecular phylogeny, which is widely considered to be accurate. W e show that the soft-tissue characters yield robust phylogenetic hypotheses that are compatible with the molecular phylogeny. Given the strength of th e evidence for molecular phylogeny, these results indicate that, unlike cra niodental hard-tissue characters, soft tissues are reliable for reconstruct ing phylogenetic relationships among higher primate species and genera. Thu s, in higher primates at least, some types of morphological data are more u seful than others for phylogeny reconstruction.