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: 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: 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 [...]

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.

Cool Science News: Pygmy Tarsiers and Fossil Lemurs

I was planning on writing about the new Homo erectus pelvis but when I got home I discovered a crisis – Firefox gave me error messages and wouldn’t open (which meant no bookmarks and hence no access to anything important like this blog). Spent about an hour getting that straightened out. I’ll get the H. [...]

Know Your Primate: Rhinopithecus roxellana

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Colobinae Genus: Rhinopithecus Species: Rhinopithecus roxellana Common: Golden snub-nosed monkey The taxonomy of the snub-nosed langurs is somewhat muddled. For purposes of this post I am following the simplest arrangement. The genus Rhinopithecus contains four species, three of which live at high elevations (up to about 4,500 meters) [...]

Know Your Primate: Papio hamadryas

Order: Primates Suborder: Haplorrhini Family: Cercopithecidae Subfamily: Cercopithecinae Genus: Papio Species: Papio hamadryas Normally, in these posts I try to provide some basic information about the species I’ve picked and provide a few pictures. In this post I would like to do something a little different.