Latest Primate Stories
Smaller primates expend no more energy climbing than they do walking, Duke University researchers have found. This surprising discovery may explain the evolutionary edge that encouraged the tiny ancestors of modern humans, apes and monkeys to climb into the trees about 65 million years ago and stay there.The researchers compared the energy consumed by five different primate species while negotiating vertical and horizontal treadmills. Their work appears in the May 16 issue of the journal...
Studies with non-human primates have made major contributions to our understanding of the brain and will continue to be an important, if small, part of neuroscience research, according to a recent review published in the British medical journal, The Lancet.Authors John P. Capitanio, professor of psychology at UC Davis and associate director of the California National Primate Research Center, and Professor Marina E. Emborg at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin National...
Brains are good for more than acing exams. Turns out, nerdy noggins also help primates like us live longer, anthropologists say. Scientists have long pondered the reason for humans' and other primates' relatively hefty heads. Elephants boast the biggest brains by volume of all land animals, but relative to body size, humans hold the brain-size record. "There's got to be a benefit to this big brain, because big brains are really expensive to grow and...
Some primates have evolved big brains because their extra brainpower helps them live and reproduce longer, an advantage that outweighs the demands of extra years of growth and development they spend reaching adulthood, anthropologists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have concluded in a new study.The four investigators compared key benchmarks in the development of 28 different primate species, ranging from humans living free of modern trappings in South American jungles to...
When painted, they can add a girly sparkle to hands, and for some people they can substitute as a guitar pick or even a backscratcher. These savvy services, though, are not the reason we humans sport the keratin-rich coverings atop our fingertips. "We have fingernails because we're primates," said John Hawks, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fingernails are one of the features that distinguish primates, including humans, from...
News of politicians' extramarital affairs seems to be in no short supply lately, but if humans were cut from exactly the same cloth as other mammals, a faithful spouse would be an unusual phenomenon. Only 3 percent to 5 percent of the roughly 5,000 species of mammals (including humans) are known to form lifelong, monogamous bonds, with the loyal superstars including beavers, wolves and some bats. Social monogamy is a term referring to creatures that pair up to mate and raise offspring but...
Analysis of the first hand bones belonging to an ancient lemur has revealed a mysterious joint structure that has scientists puzzled.Pierre Lemelin, an assistant professor of anatomy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and a team of fellow American researchers have analyzed the first hand bones ever found of Hadropithecus stenognathus, a lemur that lived 2,000 years ago. The bones were discovered in 2003 in a cave in southeastern Madagascar, an island nation off the coast of...
Leaping, furry mini-monkeys that were as small as mice crossed the Bering land bridge long before humans, representing North America's oldest known primates. This new claim is based on the fossils of at least three individuals of this previously unknown species of extinct primate uncovered at a site near Meridian, Miss., scientists announced today. The researcher estimates the primate fossils date to about 55.8 million years ago. If the age of the fossils is accurate, the...
A scientist from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has discovered remains of the earliest-known primate to live in North America. The discovery also provides an explanation of how these long-extinct primates were able to reach the continent.The primate, called Teilhardina magnoliana and part of the mammalian group that includes monkeys and apes, survived on berries and insects, and measured just three inches long weighing less than one ounce. After unearthing the primate, paleontologist...
After swabbing the cheeks of more than 200 lemurs and related primates to collect their DNA, researchers at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) and Duke Lemur Center now have a much clearer picture of their evolutionary family tree.Found in nature only on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa's southeastern coast, lemurs and their close relatives the lorises represent the sister lineage to all other primates. And that makes lemurs key to understanding what...
Latest Primate Reference Libraries
Geoffroy’s tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi) is a small primate that is native to Colombia and Panama. Its other common names include the rufous-naped tamarin, the red-crested tamarin, and the Panamanian tamarin. It can be found in many different habitats including dry, moist, tropical, and secondary forests. In Panama, it occurs in the central and eastern regions, but is found less on the Atlantic coast. It can be found in Metropolitan Natural Park as well as an urban park with its Panama...
The white-headed Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) is a New World monkey that is native to Central America, as well as the far northwestern area of South America. It is also known as the white-faced capuchin and the white-throated capuchin. Its Central American range includes Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Reports have shown that it may occur in southern Belize and eastern Guatemala, but these reports have not been confirmed. Its South American range is limited to the northwestern area...
Campbell’s mona monkey (Cercopithecus campbelli) is a primate that can be found in many areas including the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, and Liberia. Its other common names include Campbell’s monkey and Campbell’s guenon. In 2009, studies revealed that this monkey might have advanced communication skills. It previously held Lowe’s mona monkey as a subspecies. Campbell’s mona monkey appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation status of “Least Concern”. Image Caption:...
The Ugandan red colobus (Procolobus tephrosceles) is a primate native to Africa. It is an Old World monkey that was not classified as its own species until 2001. Its range includes five areas of Uganda and Tanzania that equal 621.3 miles. These areas include the edge of Lake Victoria in Tanzania and Kibale National Park in Uganda, where the largest population is thought to be located. The preferred habitat of this monkey depends on its location, and it some areas, sustainable habitat is...
The collared mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus) is a species of primate in the Old World monkey family. Its other common names include the red-capped mangabey and the white-collared mangabey, which allows for some confusion with the sooty mangabey. The collared mangabey is native to Africa, with a range including western Nigeria extending into south and east Cameroon. It can also be found through Equatorial Guinea and from Gabon to the Gabon-Congo border near the Atlantic shore. The collared...
