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Bouchet F, Urciuoli A, Beaudet A, Pina M, Moyà-Solà S, Alba DM. Comparative anatomy of the carotid canal in the Miocene small-bodied catarrhine Pliobates cataloniae. J Hum Evol 2021; 161:103073. [PMID: 34628300 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
The small-bodied Miocene catarrhine Pliobates cataloniae (11.6 Ma, Spain) displays a mosaic of catarrhine symplesiomorphies and hominoid synapomorphies that hinders deciphering its phylogenetic relationships. Based on cladistic analyses, it has been interpreted as a stem hominoid or as a pliopithecoid. Intriguingly, the carotid canal orientation of Pliobates was originally described as hylobatid-like. The variation in carotid canal morphology among anthropoid clades shown in previous studies suggests that this structure might be phylogenetically informative. However, its potential for phylogenetic reconstruction among extinct catarrhines remains largely unexplored. Here we quantify the orientation, proportions, and course of the carotid canal in Pliobates, extant anthropoids and other Miocene catarrhines (Epipliopithecus, Victoriapithecus, and Ekembo) using three-dimensional morphometric techniques. We also compute phylogenetic signal and reconstruct the ancestral carotid canal course for main anthropoid clades. Our results reveal that carotid canal morphology embeds strong phylogenetic signal but mostly discriminates between platyrrhines and catarrhines, with an extensive overlap among extant catarrhine families. The analyzed extinct taxa display a quite similar carotid canal morphology more closely resembling that of extant catarrhines. Nevertheless, our results for Pliobates highlight some differences compared with the pliopithecid Epipliopithecus, which displays a somewhat more platyrrhine-like morphology. In contrast, Pliobates appears as derived toward the modern catarrhine condition as the stem cercopithecid Victoriapithecus and the stem hominoid Ekembo, which more closely resemble one another. Moreover, Pliobates appears somewhat derived toward the reconstructed ancestral hominoid morphotype, being more similar than other Miocene catarrhines to the condition of great apes and the hylobatid Symphalangus. Overall, our results rule out previously noted similarities in carotid canal morphology between Pliobates and hylobatids, but do not show particular similarities with pliopithecoids either-as opposed to extant and other extinct catarrhines. Additional analyses will be required to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of Pliobates, particularly given its dental similarities with dendropithecids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bouchet
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Alessandro Urciuoli
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Amélie Beaudet
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, The Old Schools, Trinity Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa; Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Hatfield 0002, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Marta Pina
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
| | - Salvador Moyà-Solà
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig de Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain; Unitat d'Antropologia (Dept. BABVE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici C, Facultat de Biociències, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - David M Alba
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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MacPhee R, Del Pino SH, Kramarz A, Forasiepi AM, Bond M, Sulser RB. Cranial Morphology and Phylogenetic Relationships of Trigonostylops wortmani, an Eocene South American Native Ungulate. BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 2021. [DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090.449.1.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- R.D.E. MacPhee
- Department of Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology and Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
| | | | - Alejandro Kramarz
- Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | | | - Mariano Bond
- Departamento Científico de Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
| | - R. Benjamin Sulser
- Department of Mammalogy/Vertebrate Zoology and Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History
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Kirk EC, Lundeen IK. New observations of the nasal fossa and interorbital region of Shoshonius cooperi based on microcomputerized tomography. J Hum Evol 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Toussaint S, Llamosi A, Morino L, Youlatos D. The Central Role of Small Vertical Substrates for the Origin of Grasping in Early Primates. Curr Biol 2020; 30:1600-1613.e3. [PMID: 32169214 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Revised: 12/16/2019] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The manual and pedal grasping abilities of primates, characterized by an opposable hallux, flat nails, and elongated digits, constitute a unique combination of features that likely promoted their characteristic use of arboreal habitats. These hand and foot specificities are central for understanding the origins and early evolution of primates and have long been associated with foraging in a fine-branch milieu. However, other arboreal mammals occupy similar niches, and it remains unclear how substrate type may have exerted a selective pressure on the acquisition of nails and a divergent pollex/hallux in primates or in what sequential order these traits evolved. Here, we video-recorded 14,564 grasps during arboreal locomotion in 11 primate species (6 strepsirrhines and 5 platyrrhines) and 11 non-primate arboreal species (1 scandentian, 3 rodents, 3 carnivorans, and 4 marsupials). We quantified our observations with 19 variables to analyze the effect of substrate orientation and diameter on hand and foot postural repertoire. We found that hand and foot postures correlate with phylogeny. Also, primates exhibited high repertoire diversity, with a strong capability for postural adjustment compared to the other studied groups. Surprisingly, nails do not confer an advantage in negotiating small substrates unless the animal is large, but the possession of a grasping pollex and hallux is crucial for climbing small vertical substrates. We propose that the divergent hallux and pollex may have resulted from a frequent use of vertical plants in early primate ecological scenarios, although nails may not have resulted from a fundamental adaptation to arboreal locomotion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Severine Toussaint
- Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie-Paris, UMR 7207, CNRS/MNHN/UPMC, 8 rue Buffon CP38, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France; Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire, Département Frontières du vivant et de l'apprendre, 8 bis rue Charles V, 75004 Paris, France; UFR Sciences Du Vivant, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Sorbonne Universités, 35 rue Hélène Brion, 75013 Paris, France.
| | - Artémis Llamosi
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire, Département Frontières du vivant et de l'apprendre, 8 bis rue Charles V, 75004 Paris, France; UFR Sciences Du Vivant, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Sorbonne Universités, 35 rue Hélène Brion, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Luca Morino
- Parc Zoologique de Paris, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Université, 53 avenue de Saint Maurice, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Dionisios Youlatos
- Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Panepistimioupoli, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
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Hu Q, Nelson TJ, Seymour RS. Bone foramen dimensions and blood flow calculation: best practices. J Anat 2019; 236:357-369. [PMID: 31713844 DOI: 10.1111/joa.13106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/18/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Some blood vessels enter bones through foramina, leaving the size of the foramen as a gauge for estimating the rate of blood flow and hence the metabolic rate of the supplied tissues. Foramen dimensions have been measured using varied methods in previous foramen studies, to relate regional blood flows with associated physiological processes. With the increasing interests in this 'foramen technique', standard methods with minimized measurement errors are therefore required. This study provides details of microphotographic and micro-computerized tomographic methods, and introduces a new alternative method, which uses impression material to measure foramen dimensions. The three methods are compared and the results indicate that all of them are capable of obtaining precise and accurate foramen dimension values, although they all have limitations. A microphotograph of the external opening is suggested to be the standard method because of its ease of use, but the alternative methods provide more detailed information on foramen shape. If the foramen is mainly occupied by one artery, blood flow rates can be calculated from foramen size and artery wall-lumen ratio, which is evaluated from the literature survey in this study. If veins or nerves also penetrate the foramen, a relative index of blood flow rate is nevertheless possible for comparative purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiaohui Hu
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Thomas J Nelson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Roger S Seymour
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
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Boyer DM, Harrington AR. New estimates of blood flow rates in the vertebral artery of euarchontans and their implications for encephalic blood flow scaling: A response to Seymour and Snelling (2018). J Hum Evol 2018; 128:93-98. [PMID: 30454907 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2018] [Revised: 10/01/2018] [Accepted: 10/03/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Doug M Boyer
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
| | - Arianna R Harrington
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
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Seymour RS, Snelling EP. Calculating brain perfusion of primates. J Hum Evol 2018; 128:99-102. [PMID: 29983157 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2018] [Revised: 06/01/2018] [Accepted: 06/01/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Roger S Seymour
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
| | - Edward P Snelling
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia; Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2193, South Africa
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Vander Linden A, Hedrick BP, Kamilar JM, Dumont ER. Atlas morphology, scaling and locomotor behaviour in primates, rodents and relatives (Mammalia: Euarchontoglires). Zool J Linn Soc 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zly042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Abby Vander Linden
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Brandon P Hedrick
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jason M Kamilar
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Elizabeth R Dumont
- School of Natural Sciences, University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA
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Boyer DM, Harrington AR. Scaling of bony canals for encephalic vessels in euarchontans: Implications for the role of the vertebral artery and brain metabolism. J Hum Evol 2017; 114:85-101. [PMID: 29447763 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2016] [Revised: 09/01/2017] [Accepted: 09/02/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Supplying the central nervous system with oxygen and glucose for metabolic activities is a critical function for all animals at physiologic, anatomical, and behavioral levels. A relatively proximate challenge to nourishing the brain is maintaining adequate blood flow. Euarchontans (primates, dermopterans and treeshrews) display a diversity of solutions to this challenge. Although the vertebral artery is a major encephalic vessel, previous research has questioned its importance for irrigating the cerebrum. This presents a puzzling scenario for certain strepsirrhine primates (non-cheirogaleid lemuriforms) that have reduced promontorial branches of the internal carotid artery and no apparent alternative encephalic vascular route except for the vertebral artery. Here, we present results of phylogenetic comparative analyses of data on the cross-sectional area of bony canals that transmit the vertebral artery (transverse foramina). These results show that, across primates (and within major primate subgroups), variation in the transverse foramina helps significantly to explain variation in forebrain mass even when variation in promontorial canal cross-sectional areas are also considered. Furthermore, non-cheirogaleid lemuriforms have larger transverse foramina for their endocranial volume than other euarchontans, suggesting that the vertebral arteries compensate for reduced promontorial artery size. We also find that, among internal carotid-reliant euarchontans, species that are more encephalized tend to have a promontorial canal that is larger relative to the transverse foramina. Tentatively, we consider the correlation between arterial canal diameters (as a proxy for blood flow) and brain metabolic demands. The results of this analysis imply that human investment in brain metabolism (∼27% of basal metabolic rate) may not be exceptional among euarchontans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doug M Boyer
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
| | - Arianna R Harrington
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
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Boyer DM, Toussaint S, Godinot M. Postcrania of the most primitive euprimate and implications for primate origins. J Hum Evol 2017; 111:202-215. [PMID: 28874272 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2017] [Revised: 07/11/2017] [Accepted: 07/12/2017] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
The fossil record of early primates is largely comprised of dentitions. While teeth can indicate phylogenetic relationships and dietary preferences, they say little about hypotheses pertaining to the positional behavior or substrate preference of the ancestral crown primate. Here we report the discovery of a talus bone of the dentally primitive fossil euprimate Donrussellia provincialis. Our comparisons and analyses indicate that this talus is more primitive than that of other euprimates. It lacks features exclusive to strepsirrhines, like a large medial tibial facet and a sloping fibular facet. It also lacks the medially positioned flexor-fibularis groove of extant haplorhines. In these respects, the talus of D. provincialis comes surprisingly close to that of the pen-tailed treeshrew, Ptilocercus lowii, and extinct plesiadapiforms for which tali are known. However, it differs from P. lowii and is more like other early euprimates in exhibiting an expanded posterior trochlear shelf and deep talar body. In overall form, the bone approximates more leaping reliant euprimates. The phylogenetically basal signal from the new fossil is confirmed with cladistic analyses of two different character matrices, which place D. provincialis as the most basal strepsirrhine when the new tarsal data are included. Interpreting our results in the context of other recent discoveries, we conclude that the lineage leading to the ancestral euprimate had already become somewhat leaping specialized, while certain specializations for the small branch niche came after crown primates began to radiate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doug M Boyer
- Duke University, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
| | - Séverine Toussaint
- UFR Sciences Du Vivant, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Sorbonne Universités, Centre de Recherche sur La Paléobiodiversité et Les Paléoenvironnements (CR2P, UMR 7207), CNRS/MNHN/UPMC, Paris, France
| | - Marc Godinot
- École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL, UMR 7207 CR2P, Paris, France
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Abstract
AbstractAdvancement of understanding in paleontology and biology has always been hindered by difficulty in accessing comparative data. With current and burgeoning technology, the severity of this hindrance can be substantially reduced. Researchers and museum personnel generating three-dimensional (3-D) digital models of museum specimens can archive them using internet repositories that can then be explored and utilized by other researchers and private individuals without a museum trip. We focus on MorphoSource, the largest web archive for 3-D museum data at present. We describe the site, how to use it most effectively in its current form, and best practices for file formats and metadata inclusion to aid the growing community wishing to utilize it for distributing 3-D digital data. The potential rewards of successfully crowd sourcing the digitization of museum collections from the research community are great, as it should ensure rapid availability of the most important datasets. Challenges include long-term governance (i.e., maintaining site functionality, supporting large amounts of digital storage, and monitoring/updating file to prevent bit rot, which is the slow and random corruption of electronic data over time, and data format obsolescence, which is the problem of data becoming unreadable or ineffective because of the loss of functional software necessary for access), and utilization by the community (i.e., detecting and minimizing user error in creating data records, incentivizing data sharing by researchers and institutions alike, and protecting stakeholder rights to data, while maximizing accessibility and discoverability).MorphoSource serves as a proof-of-concept of how these kinds of challenges can be met. Accordingly, it is generally recognized as the most appropriate repository for large, raw datasets of fossil organisms and/or comparative samples. Its existence has begun to transform data transparency standards because journal reviewers, editors, and grant officers now often suggest or require that 3-D data be made available through this site.
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Seymour RS, Bosiocic V, Snelling EP. Fossil skulls reveal that blood flow rate to the brain increased faster than brain volume during human evolution. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2016; 3:160305. [PMID: 27853608 PMCID: PMC5108958 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2016] [Accepted: 07/29/2016] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of human cognition has been inferred from anthropological discoveries and estimates of brain size from fossil skulls. A more direct measure of cognition would be cerebral metabolic rate, which is proportional to cerebral blood flow rate (perfusion). The hominin cerebrum is supplied almost exclusively by the internal carotid arteries. The sizes of the foramina that transmitted these vessels in life can be measured in hominin fossil skulls and used to calculate cerebral perfusion rate. Perfusion in 11 species of hominin ancestors, from Australopithecus to archaic Homo sapiens, increases disproportionately when scaled against brain volume (the allometric exponent is 1.41). The high exponent indicates an increase in the metabolic intensity of cerebral tissue in later Homo species, rather than remaining constant (1.0) as expected by a linear increase in neuron number, or decreasing according to Kleiber's Law (0.75). During 3 Myr of hominin evolution, cerebral tissue perfusion increased 1.7-fold, which, when multiplied by a 3.5-fold increase in brain size, indicates a 6.0-fold increase in total cerebral blood flow rate. This is probably associated with increased interneuron connectivity, synaptic activity and cognitive function, which all ultimately depend on cerebral metabolic rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger S. Seymour
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
- Author for correspondence: Roger S. Seymour e-mail:
| | - Vanya Bosiocic
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
| | - Edward P. Snelling
- Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2193, South Africa
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