The morphology of the palatine arch of pongids

With the help of frontal cuts through casts of skulls of Pongids we demonstrated the postnatal development of the form of the hard palate. The form of the hard palate is similar to a semicircle in the frontal cut. In the Chimpanzee the palatal form in the frontal cut ist not as semicircular as in the other great apes and is similar to the palatal form of humans in the molar region. The differences between Pongo pygmaeus and the african apes consists in the fact, that the palate of the Pongo pygmaeus has a stronger vault in the canine region than the palate of the Gorilla and Chimpanzee.