We ain’t monkeyin’ around here.
Earlier this year, I blogged about long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascularis) in Thailand using human hair as dental floss to clean their teeth. This behavior gives us an insight to culture transfer as mothers were observed teaching their infants how to floss repeatedly. In Kyoto, Japan, a Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) name Chonpe was observed flossing... Continue Reading →
Another interesting paper on teeth, specifically the eruption of the first molar (M1), by Jay Kelley and Gary Schwartz from The Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University (ASU) Since the emergence of M1 correlates with many life history attributes in extant primates, data from this paper can be used to compare the life history... Continue Reading →
Great apes (orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee) depend on their teeth to get them through tough times when food is scarce. Natural selection favor individuals with teeth that can process fallback foods, foods that are harder than the great apes normal diet of fruits. The evolution of the thickness of enamel in great apes reflects the... Continue Reading →
From BBC News, chimps from the Nimba Mountains of Guinea, Africa were observed using tools to chop up and reduce food into smaller bite-sized pieces. Kathelijne Koops and William McGrew of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge (UK) with Tetsuro Matsuzawa from Kyoto University, Inundate (Japan) observed this behavior and published... Continue Reading →
Meat, that's what for dinner. Ever wonder why humans outlive apes? The answer might be because we eat a lot of meat. Genes evolved in humans to adjust to a meat-rich diet helps fight diseases associated with aging such as cancer, heart disease and dementia. Not to mention, the expansion of brain size in the... Continue Reading →
Black and white colobus monkey, one of the folivory species threaten by global warming. A paper by Korstjens et al. (2009) suggests that even an annual temperature rise of 2°C would threaten folivory primates because these species would be forced to spend more time resting than foraging for food. This paper, Resting time as an... Continue Reading →
Jill Pruetz, an ISU associate professor of anthropology, has been studying savanna chimpanzees at her Fongoli research site in Senegal since 2001. Her new study documents how the chimps understand the fire they encounter in the region. Photo by Bob Elbert, ISU News Service. A new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz suggests... Continue Reading →
A group of researchers from University of St. Andrews, Scotland argues that Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli campbelli) have a primitive form of syntax after spending months of recording their calls as they response to both natural and artificial stimuli. Lead by Dr. Klaus Zuberbühle, the team found that male's alarm calls are made up of... Continue Reading →
While I was away at the AAA meeting in Philadelphia, my inbox was flooded with articles on primates from behavioral to molecular level. Here's whats happening this week in primatology: Primate study halted by US university: Administrators at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater have abruptly cancelled an anthrax vaccine study that would have killed... Continue Reading →
