Variability of the craniofacial skeleton. III. Radiographic cephalometry of juvenile Macaca mulatta.

The variability of the craniofacial skeleton of the juvenile Macaca mulatta was studied from lateral radiographic cephalograms of twenty-three animals, using a previously described method based on fourteen lines depicting certain anatomic features. The findings, when compared to corresponding human data, revealed that a number of angular relationships are similar in this monkey and in human childrena and adults. The same is true regarding the variability of individual lines. These similarities suggest that biologic similarities exist in the cranio-facial skeletal architecture in these species. Specifically, the findings in the Macaca mulatta were in agreement with previous findings in human children and adults as regards the parallelism between the anterior parts of the neurovascular canals of the upper and lower jaws and the apparently adaptive role of the ramus and the condyle.