The Great Ape Heart Project

I meant to write about this a couple of months ago, after reading a story similar to this The original article I read, and forgot to bookmark, focused mainly on the process of how to train a gorilla to sit still for this kind of procedure (this article touches on that a little). I’m getting [...]

Gorilla Genome Sequenced!

The gorilla genome has been sequenced and yields some interesting insights on human evolution. The research is reported in Nature. The article is open access. Here is the abstract: Gorillas are humans’ closest living relatives after chimpanzees, and are of comparable importance for the study of human origins and evolution. Here we present the assembly [...]

Know Your Primate: Presbytis hosei canicrus

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Colobinae Genus: Presbytis Species: Presbytis hosei canicrus Common Name: Miller’s grizzled langur Presbytis hosei canicrus is a subspecies of grey leaf monkey. It was feared to be extinct but has recently been observed in Borneo. Picture Source

Gigantopithecus!

The open access journal Chinese Science Bulletin has an article on the carbon isotope values of Gigantopithecus blacki teeth.

Know Your Primate: Parapapio broomi

Order: Primates Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Cercopithecinae Tribe: Papionini Genus: Parapapio Species: Parapapio broomi The genus Parapaio is composed of four species: Parapapio jonesi, Parapapio whitei, Parapapio broomi, and Parapapio antiquus. The picture of Parapapio broomi below is that of a specimen from Bolt’s Farm and dates to about 2 MYA (the picture is somewhat distorted [...]

Know Your Primate: Archaeolemur majori

Order: Primates Suborder: Strepsirrhini Infraorder: Lemuriformes Family: Archaeolemuridae Genus: Archaeolemur Species: Archaeolemur majori Archaeolemurs are extinct lemurs from the island of Madagascar. They were quadrupedal frugivores that exploited both terrestrial and aboreal environments. (Picture source: Tattersall 1973 Cranial Anatomy Of The Archaeolemurinae (Lemouroidea, Primates), Anthropological Papers of the AMNH, Vol 52, Part I)

Know Your Primate: Callicebus caquetensis

A new species of Titi monkey has been discovered in Columbia: Picture Source: here

Know Your Primate: Saadanius hijazensis

Saadanius hijazensis is a fossil primate dating to the Oligocene at somewhere around 29-28 MYA. Brian Switek has an excellent overview of the finds implications for paleoanthropology.

Know Your Primate:Varecia variegata

In honor of those who have delurked here is another installment of my long neglected Know Your Primate series.

Know Your Primate: Anoiapithecus brevirostris

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Hominidae Subfamily: incertae sedis Tribe: Dryopithecini Genus: Anoiapithecus Species: Anoiapithecus brevirostris I have chosen Anoiapithecus brevirostris for this week’s “know Your Primate” because a paper on it has recently been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The paper, by Alba, Fortuny, and Moya-Sola, looks at enamel thickness [...]

Know Your Primate: Pongo abelii

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Hominidae Genus: Pongo Species: Pongo abelii Common Name: Sumatran Orangutan The sumatran orang lives, obviously, in Sumatra – they are an endemic species. According several genetic analysis the Sumatran and Bornean populations diverged from each other about 1.5-1.7 MYA. They are largely frugivorous and spend most of their time in [...]

Know Your Primate: Lophocebus aterrimus

Order Primates Suborder Haplorrhini Family Cercopithecidae Subfamily Cercopithecinae Genus Lophocebus Species Lophocebus aterrimus Common Name: Black Mangabey, Black-crested Mangabey

Know Your Primate: Chiropotes satanas

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Pitheciidae Subfamily: Pitheciinae Genus: Chiropotes Species: Chiropotes satanas There are two species of Chiropotes, the other being C. albinasius. C. satanas has two subspecies C. s. satanas and C. s. chiropotes. The species occurs in Brazil, southern Venezuela, and Guianas living primarily in the middle and upper canopies of rain [...]

Know Your Primate Returns: Pseudopotto martini

After a lengthy hiatus I am resurrecting Know Your Primate. Hopefully it will appear every Saturday like clockwork (yes I know, today is Sunday).

Von Economo Neurons and Hominoids

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would have more to say about primates, brain evolution, and life history. I still plan on exploring that in future posts, but wanted to mention this interesting item that deserves a post of its own.