The Cranial Morphology of the Black-Footed Ferret: A Comparison of Wild and Captive Specimens.

The black-footed ferret (), a North American mustelid species, was once found abundantly throughout the Midwest until the extreme decline in prairie dogs ( spp.), the black-footed ferret's primary food source, brought the species to near-extinction. Subsequently, the Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Program was created in the 1980s with a goal of bringing all remaining individuals of the species into captivity in order to breed the species back to a sustainable population level for successful reintroduction into the wild.

Brief communication: Maximum ingested bite size in captive western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

Objectives: Previously, we found that maximum ingested bite size (V ), the largest piece of food an animal can consume without biting it into smaller pieces first, isometrically scales relative to body size in strepsirrhines and with negative allometry in anthropoids. In the current study, we rectify the omission of great apes from the earlier sample to now characterize the V of the entire size-range of the order.

Materials And Methods: Five gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla-G.

Leg Muscle Architecture in Primates and Its Correlation with Locomotion Patterns.

Bone biomechanical studies indicate that leg bone structure can be related to different locomotor patterns. The osteological correlates of extant primates' locomotion patterns and substrate use are important to consider when estimating corresponding behaviors of extinct primates. Here, we test if these same patterns are seen in the differences in leg muscular architecture.

Scaling of Primate Forearm Muscle Architecture as It Relates to Locomotion and Posture.

It has been previously proposed that distal humerus morphology may reflect the locomotor pattern and substrate preferred by different primates. However, relationships between these behaviors and the morphological capabilities of muscles originating on these osteological structures have not been fully explored. Here, we present data about forearm muscle architecture in a sample of 44 primate species (N = 55 specimens): 9 strepsirrhines, 15 platyrrhines, and 20 catarrhines.

Dietary Correlates of Primate Masticatory Muscle Fiber Architecture.

Analyses of masticatory muscle architecture-specifically fascicle length (FL; a correlate of muscle stretch and contraction speed) and physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA; a correlate of force)-reveal soft-tissue dietary adaptations. For instance, consumers of large, soft foods are expected to have relatively long FL, while consumers of obdurate foods are expected to have relatively high PCSA. Unfortunately, only a few studies have analyzed these variables across large primate samples-an order of particular interest because it is our own.