Latest Ape Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers from Lund University in Sweden wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that the hunting of animals like primates in these rainforests can cause a reduction in the dispersal of seeds. “Hunting has a dramatic effect on the composition and structure of the forest, just as logging does, but without felling any trees,” said Ola Olsson, a professor in Lund’s Department of Biology. The team studied...

[Watch Video: Smithsonian Orangutans Using iPads for Enrichment] Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC has recently begun using Apple iPads to interact with a zoo favorite, orangutans.  The Smithsonian now joins 12 other zoos around the world who use this high tech program appropriately called “Apps for Apes.” According to Smithsonian officials, this program is great for enriching the daily lives of...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A neuroscientist specializing in cognitive and sensory systems research is using eye tracking equipment on orangutans to better understand visual cognition of humans and apes, and also help provide a better life for captive bred animals. Dr Neil Mennie, from The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), is using the specially adapted equipment to study the eye movements of Tsunami, a seven year old orangutan at The National Zoo...

John Neumann for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online If you are not a fan of opera music, you may have already assumed the similarities of a classic music form and the shrieks of helium-huffing monkeys. Researchers in Japan however, have released a study detailing similarities between such primates, gibbons in particular, and professional soprano singers. A gibbon’s song is acoustically unique among primates, with a melody which can be heard over two miles away. Wild gibbons use their...

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Australopithecus sediba, believed to be an early relative of modern-day humans, enjoyed a diet of leaves, fruits, nuts, and bark, which meant they probably lived in a more wooded environment than is generally thought, a surprising find published in the current issue of Nature magazine by an international team of researchers that includes a Texas A&M University anthropologist. (Logo:...

Brett Smith for RedOrbit.com The reexamination of an ancestral human fossil found almost 90 years ago indicates that evolutionary changes in human brain development started 2.5 million years ago, about the time these ancestors began to walk upright. Florida State University researcher Dean Faulk and her colleagues analyzed the 2.2 million-year-old Taung fossil of a 3 to 4-year-old child and found several features that suggest a developed mechanism that allowed for the growth of a more...

It seems that “Lucy” was not the only hominin on the block in northern Africa about 3 million years ago. A team of researchers that included Johns Hopkins University geologist Naomi Levin has announced the discovery of a partial foot skeleton with characteristics (such as an opposable big toe bone) that don’t match those of Lucy, the human ancestor (or hominin) known to inhabit that region and considered by many to be the ancestor of all modern humans. The discovery is important...

Celebrities are channeling a distant relative with what Harper’s Bazaar describes as the latest trend in nail fashion for 2012: claws. But this may not be the first time primates traded their nails for claws. A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher examines the first extinct North American primate with a toe bone showing features associated with the presence of both nails and a grooming claw, indicating our primate ancestors may have traded their flat nails for...

Adaptation to upright walking leaves humans susceptible, Case Western Reserve University study shows Osteoporosis is blamed for backbone fractures. The real culprit could well be our own vertebrae, which evolved to absorb the pounding of upright walking, researchers at Case Western Reserve University say. Compared to apes, humans have larger, more porous vertebrae encased in a much thinner shell of bone. The design works well until men and women age and suffer bone loss, leaving them...

Anthropologist Pat Shipman says that when our prehistoric ancestors began interacting with animals they developed empathy for them. The leading American anthropologist says these ancient humans' relationships with animals helped propel humanity towards global domination. The Observer reported that Shipman said interacting with animals on an intimate basis led humans to help develop sophisticated tools and evolve enhanced communication skills. She traced humanity's animals connection...