Measuring mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) testes via parallel laser photogrammetry: Expanding the use of noninvasive methods.

Parallel laser photogrammetry (PLP), which consists of attaching two or three parallel laser beams at a known inter-beam distance to a camera, can be used to collect morphological measurements of organisms noninvasively. The lasers project onto the photo being taken, and because the inter-beam distance is known, they act as a scale for image analysis programs like ImageJ. Traditionally, this method has been used to measure larger morphological traits (e.

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Population Spans Multiple Protected Areas in the Albertine Rift.

We used mitochondrial DNA to examine gene flow in a region of western Uganda that has received little attention regarding chimpanzee population dynamics. The area is critical to gene flow between isolated Democratic Republic of Congo populations and the rest of East Africa. None of the chimpanzees in each of the 4 protected areas under consideration (Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Semuliki National Park, Rwenzori Mountains National Park and Itwara Central Forest Reserve) are fully habituated.

Detecting riparian habitat preferences in "savanna" chimpanzees and associated Fauna with strontium isotope ratios: Implications for reconstructing habitat use by the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor.

Objectives: Riparian or gallery forests are critical habitats for numerous plants and animals today. Paleoanthropologically, reliance on such habitats informs behavioral and ecological reconstructions; for example, gallery forest habitats likely played a critical role in the transition from ape to hominin in the early Pliocene and may represent a preferred habitat for the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. Direct indicators for gallery forest habitats preference are lacking.

Is genetic drift to blame for testicular dysgenesis syndrome in Semliki chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)?

Background: We present 3 likely cases of testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS) within a community of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). We tested whether genetic drift may be the culprit, as a genetic cause has been suspected to account for TDS among other wildlife.

Methods: We successfully sequenced a 367-bp segment spanning the first hypervariable region within the D-loop of the mitochondrial genome for 78 DNA samples.

Why are there apes? Evidence for the co-evolution of ape and monkey ecomorphology.

Apes, members of the superfamily Hominoidea, possess a distinctive suite of anatomical and behavioral characters which appear to have evolved relatively late and relatively independently. The timing of paleontological events, extant cercopithecine and hominoid ecomorphology and other evidence suggests that many distinctive ape features evolved to facilitate harvesting ripe fruits among compliant terminal branches in tree edges. Precarious, unpredictably oriented, compliant supports in the canopy periphery require apes to maneuver using suspensory and non-sterotypical postures (i.

Selective insectivory at Toro-Semliki, Uganda: comparative analyses suggest no 'savanna' chimpanzee pattern.

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) insectivory across Africa is ubiquitous. Insects provide a significant nutritional payoff and may be important for chimpanzees in dry, open habitats with narrow diets. We tested this hypothesis at Semliki, Uganda, a long-term dry study site.

Chimpanzees preferentially select sleeping platform construction tree species with biomechanical properties that yield stable, firm, but compliant nests.

The daily construction of a sleeping platform or "nest" is a universal behavior among large-bodied hominoids. Among chimpanzees, most populations consistently select particular tree species for nesting, yet the principles that guide species preferences are poorly understood. At Semliki, Cynometra alexandri constitutes only 9.

Do chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) exhibit sleep related behaviors that minimize exposure to parasitic arthropods? A preliminary report on the possible anti-vector function of chimpanzee sleeping platforms.

Great apes spend half of their lives in a nightly "nest" or sleeping platform (SP), a complex object created by modifying foliage, which functions as a stable substrate on which to sleep. Of the several purported functions of SPs, one hypothesis is that they protect against parasitic infection. Here we investigate the role of SP site choice in avoiding molestation by arthropods.

A thermodynamic comparison of arboreal and terrestrial sleeping sites for dry-habitat chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda.

The nightly construction of an arboreal sleeping platform (SP) has been observed among every chimpanzee's population studied to date. Here, we report on bioclimatic aspects of SP site choice among dry-habitat chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda. We placed a portable weather monitor within 1 m of chimpanzee SPs and compared the microenvironment of this site with terrestrial monitors placed 10 cm above the ground directly underneath the simultaneously studied SP.

Locomotor behavior and long bone morphology in individual free-ranging chimpanzees.

We combine structural limb data and behavioral data for free-ranging chimpanzees from Taï (Ivory Coast) and Mahale National Parks (Tanzania) to begin to consider the relationship between individual variation in locomotor activity and morphology. Femoral and humeral cross sections of ten individuals were acquired via computed tomography. Locomotor profiles of seven individuals were constructed from 3387 instantaneous time-point observations (87.

The single species hypothesis: truly dead and pushing up bushes, or still twitching and ripe for resuscitation?

Frank Livingstone proclaims himself to be the last living proponent of the single species hypothesis. In sharp contrast, a species-rich, bushy phylogeny is favored by most human paleontologists. Is Livingstone's proclamation merely contrarian posturing, or does closer inspection warrant reconsideration of just how speciose the hominin lineage is? The high-speciation perspective draws on evidence of speciosity in the Cercopithecoidea and punctuated equilibria theory for support.

Demography, female life history, and reproductive profiles among the chimpanzees of Mahale.

Demography provides critical data to increase our understanding of the evolution, ecology, and conservation of primate populations. The chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, have been studied for more than 34 yr on the basis of individual identification and standardized attendance records. From this long-term study, we derived the following demographic data: The major cause of death was disease (48%), followed by senescence (24%) and within-species aggression (16%).

GRADUAL CHANGE IN HUMAN TOOTH SIZE IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND POST-PLEISTOCENE.

Starting with the onset of the last glaciation approximately 100,000 years ago and continuing to the end of the Late Pleistocene approximately 10,000 years ago, human tooth size began to reduce at a rate of 1% every 2,000 years. Both the mesial-distal and the buccal-lingual dimensions of mandibular and maxillary teeth were undergoing the same rate of reduction. From the beginning of the Post-Pleistocene until the present, the overall rate of dental reduction doubled, becoming approximately 1% per thousand years.