| medical and surgical management of reproductive neoplasia in two western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | reports of female reproductive tract neoplasia are infrequent in great apes. | 2010 | 20412375 |
| the olduvai hominid 8 foot: adult or subadult? | olduvai hominid 8 (oh 8), an articulating set of fossil hominin tarsal and metatarsal bones, is critical to interpretations of the evolution of hominin pedal morphology and bipedal locomotion. it has been suggested that oh 8 may represent the foot of a subadult and may be associated with the oh 7 mandible, the type specimen of homo habilis. this assertion is based on the presence of what may be unfused distal metatarsal epiphyses. accurately assessing the skeletal maturity of the oh 8 foot is im ... | 2010 | 20416928 |
| monitoring great ape and elephant abundance at large spatial scales: measuring effectiveness of a conservation landscape. | protected areas are fundamental to biodiversity conservation, but there is growing recognition of the need to extend beyond protected areas to meet the ecological requirements of species at larger scales. landscape-scale conservation requires an evaluation of management impact on biodiversity under different land-use strategies; this is challenging and there exist few empirical studies. in a conservation landscape in northern republic of congo we demonstrate the application of a large-scale moni ... | 2010 | 20428233 |
| muscle-specific integrins in masseter muscle fibers of chimpanzees: an immunohistochemical study. | most notably, recent comparative genomic analyses strongly indicate that the marked differences between modern human and chimpanzees are likely due more to changes in gene regulation than to modifications of the genes. the most peculiar aspect of hominoid karyotypes is that human have 46 chromosomes whereas gorillas and chimpanzees have 48. interestingly, human and chimpanzees do share identical inversions on chromosome 7 and 9 that are not evident in the gorilla karyotype. thus, the general phy ... | 2009 | 20430719 |
| the impact of regulatory fit on performance in an inattentional blindness paradigm. | when people's self-regulatory focus (e.g., focus on gains vs. focus on avoiding losses) matches environmental demands (e.g., search gains vs. avoid losses), regulatory focus theory predicts performance improvements because of "regulatory fit" (higgins, 1997). in this article, the authors investigate attentional differences due to regulatory fit as a possible cause for changes in performance, using an inattentional blindness paradigm. participants counted passes in a basketball game, during which ... | 2010 | 20441129 |
| surgical extractions for periodontal disease in a western lowland gorilla. | this case report describes surgical exraction of multiple premolar and molar teeth in a western lowland gorilla. postoperative photographs and radiographs indicated complete healing of the extraction sites. this case report includes a review of gorilla dental anatomy, oral disease in primates, pathogenesis of periodontal disease, predisposing factors to periodontal disease, and principles of surgical tooth extraction. | 2010 | 20469792 |
| detection and characterization of hepatitis b virus strains from wild-caught gorillas and chimpanzees in cameroon, central africa. | previous epidemiological studies have reported a high prevalence of hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection in chimpanzees in gabon and congo, central africa. there is no data for this species from cameroon. to date few cases of active hbv infection have been documented in gorillas and only one complete hbv sequence has been described from a wild-caught gorilla originating from cameroon and housed in germany. since gorillas are apes found in cameroon, we thus investigated the prevalence and genetic re ... | 2010 | 20471498 |
| proteomic distinction between humans and great apes based on plasma transthyretin microheterogeneity. | although humans and their closest relative, the chimpanzee are 98.5% identical in their dna sequences, they differ in morphologic, behavioural and cognitive aspects. recent studies imply observed differences in transthyretin (ttr) as a unique feature in human evolution. we studied differences in the molecular heterogeneity of plasma ttr between humans and great apes (chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, orang-utan) using a mass spectrometry immunoassay. compared to humans, ttr levels were higher in chim ... | 2007 | 20483288 |
| dental and phylogeographic patterns of variation in gorillas. | gorilla patterns of variation have great relevance for studies of human evolution. in this study, molar morphometrics were used to evaluate patterns of geographic variation in gorillas. dental specimens of 323 adult individuals, drawn from the current distribution of gorillas in equatorial africa were divided into 14 populations. discriminant analyses and mahalanobis distances were used to study population structure. results reveal that: 1) the west and east african gorillas form distinct cluste ... | 2010 | 20494403 |
| african apes as reservoirs of plasmodium falciparum and the origin and diversification of the laverania subgenus. | we investigated two mitochondrial genes (cytb and cox1), one plastid gene (tufa), and one nuclear gene (ldh) in blood samples from 12 chimpanzees and two gorillas from cameroon and one lemur from madagascar. one gorilla sample is related to plasmodium falciparum, thus confirming the recently reported presence in gorillas of this parasite. the second gorilla sample is more similar to the recently defined plasmodium gaboni than to the p. falciparum-plasmodium reichenowi clade, but distinct from bo ... | 2010 | 20498054 |
| the von economo neurons in frontoinsular and anterior cingulate cortex in great apes and humans. | the von economo neurons (vens) are large bipolar neurons located in frontoinsular (fi) and anterior cingulate cortex in great apes and humans, but not other primates. we performed stereological counts of the vens in fi and la (limbic anterior, a component of anterior cingulate cortex) in great apes and in humans. the vens are more numerous in humans than in apes, although one gorilla approached the lower end of the human range. we also examined the ontological development of the vens in fi and l ... | 2010 | 20512377 |
| do gorillas (gorilla gorilla) and orangutans (pongo pygmaeus) fail to represent objects in the context of cohesion violations? | recent research suggests that witnessing events of fission (e.g., the splitting of a solid object) impairs human infants', human adults', and non-human primates' object representations. the present studies investigated the reactions of gorillas and orangutans to cohesion violation across different types of fission events implementing a behavioral paradigm previously used with human infants. results suggest that fission events vary in their impact on representational abilities but do not destroy ... | 2010 | 20537325 |
| endocranial shape asymmetries in pan paniscus, pan troglodytes and gorilla gorilla assessed via skull based landmark analysis. | brain shape asymmetries or petalias consist of the extension of one cerebral hemisphere beyond the other. a larger frontal or caudal projection is usually coupled with a larger lateral extent of the more projecting hemisphere relative to the other. the concurrence of these petalial components is characteristic of hominins. studies aimed at quantifying petalial asymmetries in human and great ape endocasts rely on the definition of the midline of the endocranial surface. studies of brain material ... | 2010 | 20537369 |
| quantifying mental foramen position in extant hominoids and australopithecus: implications for its use in studies of human evolution. | the location of the mental foramen on the mandibular corpus has figured prominently in debates concerning the taxonomy of fossil hominins and gorilla gorilla. in this study we quantify the antero/posterior (a/p) position of the mental foramen across great apes, modern humans and australopithecus. contrary to most qualitative assessments, we find significant differences between some extant hominoid species in mental foramen a/p position supporting its potential usefulness as a character for taxon ... | 2010 | 20564583 |
| noninvasive saliva collection techniques for free-ranging mountain gorillas and captive eastern gorillas. | this study was designed to develop a simple, noninvasive method for saliva collection: a first step toward developing new diagnostic tests to survey gorillas for infectious diseases. the subjects included free-ranging mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei) in the parc national des volcans, rwanda, and a group of orphan mountain and grauer's gorillas (gorilla heringei graueri) housed nearby in a temporary holding facility. three collection methods were used to recover saliva from discarded ... | 2010 | 20597210 |
| validation of multiple diagnostic techniques to detect cryptosporidium sp. and giardia sp. in free-ranging western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) and observations on the prevalence of these protozoan infections in two populations in gabon. | anthropozoonotic diseases threaten the survival of western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). use of accurate diagnostic techniques in gorilla health monitoring contributes to the conservation of gorillas by providing robust information for appropriate management decisions. to identify suitable protozoa diagnostic techniques for wild gorillas, 95 fecal specimens were collected in lopé national park and east of moukalaba-doudou national park in gabon, areas with high and low levels of hu ... | 2010 | 20597211 |
| dientamoeba fragilis: initial evidence of pathogenicity in the western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | a 7-yr-old female western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) shared an enclosure with 10 other gorillas at the limbe wildlife centre (lwc), a wildlife rehabilitation centre in cameroon. the gorilla had been living at the lwc for more than 6 yr prior to the exhibition of irritable bowel syndrome (ibs)-like clinical signs. the gorilla improved dramatically after metronidazole therapy. the report suggests that metronidazole was effective because it eliminated the protozoa, dientamoeba fragil ... | 2010 | 20597233 |
| ape behavior in two alternating environments: comparing exhibit and short-term holding areas. | in many facilities, primates are voluntarily transferred between different enclosures on a daily basis to facilitate animal husbandry and exhibit maintenance. this procedure is particularly relevant in the management of great apes living in zoos, where the requirements of functional management must be balanced with the desire to maintain enriching and naturalistic exhibit enclosures that benefit ape residents and attract the visiting public. in these settings, examinations of ape behavior and we ... | 2010 | 20623498 |
| a likelihood ratio test of speciation with gene flow using genomic sequence data. | genomic sequence data may be used to test hypotheses about the process of species formation. in this paper, i implement a likelihood ratio test of variable species divergence times over the genome, which may be considered a test of the null model of allopatric speciation without gene flow against the alternative model of parapatric speciation with gene flow. two models are implemented in the likelihood framework, which accommodate coalescent events in the ancestral populations in a phylogeny of ... | 2010 | 20624726 |
| the evolution of hiv-1 and the origin of aids. | the major cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) is human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (hiv-1). we have been using evolutionary comparisons to trace (i) the origin(s) of hiv-1 and (ii) the origin(s) of aids. the closest relatives of hiv-1 are simian immunodeficiency viruses (sivs) infecting wild-living chimpanzees (pan troglodytes troglodytes) and gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) in west central africa. phylogenetic analyses have revealed the origins of hiv-1: chimpanzees were th ... | 2010 | 20643738 |
| comparative forefoot trabecular bone architecture in extant hominids. | the appearance of a forefoot push-off mechanism in the hominin lineage has been difficult to identify, partially because researchers disagree over the use of the external skeletal morphology to differentiate metatarsophalangeal joint functional differences in extant great apes and humans. in this study, we approach the problem by quantifying properties of internal bone architecture that may reflect different loading patterns in metatarsophalangeal joints in humans and great apes. high-resolution ... | 2010 | 20655571 |
| identification and characterization of a new bocavirus species in gorillas. | a novel parvovirus, provisionally named gorilla bocavirus species 1 (gbov1), was identified in four stool samples from western gorillas (gorilla gorilla) with acute enteritis. the complete genomic sequence of the new parvovirus revealed three open reading frames (orfs) with an organization similar to that of known bocaviruses. phylogenetic analysis using complete capsid and non structural (ns) gene sequence suggested that the new parvovirus is most closely related to human bocaviruses (hbov). ho ... | 2010 | 20668709 |
| genomic architecture of mhc-linked odorant receptor gene repertoires among 16 vertebrate species. | the recent sequencing and assembly of the genomes of different organisms have shown that almost all vertebrates studied in detail so far have one or more clusters of genes encoding odorant receptors (or) in close physical linkage to the major histocompatibility complex (mhc). it has been postulated that mhc-linked or genes could be involved in mhc-influenced mate choice, comprising both pre- as well as post-copulatory mechanisms. we have therefore carried out a systematic comparison of protein s ... | 2010 | 20680261 |
| real-time pcr detection of campylobacter spp. in free-ranging mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei). | health monitoring of wildlife populations can greatly benefit from rapid, local, noninvasive molecular assays for pathogen detection. fecal samples collected from free-living virunga mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei) between august 2002 and february 2003 were tested for campylobacter spp. dna using a portable, real-time polymerase chain reaction (pcr) instrument. a high prevalence of campylobacter spp. was detected in both individually identified (22/26=85%) and nest-collected sample ... | 2010 | 20688685 |
| great apes select tools on the basis of their rigidity. | wild chimpanzees select tools according to their rigidity. however, little is known about whether choices are solely based on familiarity with the materials or knowledge about tool properties. furthermore, it is unclear whether tool manipulation is required prior to selection or whether observation alone can suffice. we investigated whether chimpanzees (pan troglodytes) (n = 9), bonobos (pan paniscus) (n = 4), orangutans (pongo pygmaeus) (n = 6), and gorillas (gorilla gorilla) (n = 2) selected n ... | 2010 | 20718558 |
| brief communication: ectocranial suture closure in pongo: pattern and phylogeny. | ectocranial suture fusion patterns have been shown to contain biological and phylogenetic information. previously the patterns of homo, pan, and gorilla have been described. these data reflect the phylogenetic relationships among these species. in this study, we applied similar methodology to pongo to determine the suture synostosis progression of this genus, and to allow comparison to previously reported data on other large-bodied hominoids. we hypothesized these data would strengthen the argum ... | 2010 | 20721941 |
| humans differ from other hominids in lacking an activating nk cell receptor that recognizes the c1 epitope of mhc class i. | modulation of human nk cell function by killer cell ig-like receptors (kir) and mhc class i is dominated by the bipartite interactions of inhibitory lineage iii kir with the c1 and c2 epitopes of hla-c. in comparison, the ligand specificities and functional contributions of the activating lineage iii kir remain poorly understood. using a robust, sensitive assay of kir binding and a representative panel of 95 hla class i targets, we show that kir2ds1 binds c2 with ~50% the avidity of kir2dl1, whe ... | 2010 | 20802150 |
| behavioral responses of one western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) group at bai hokou, central african republic, to tourists, researchers and trackers. | gorilla tourism, widely perceived as a lucrative industry, is propelled by strong market demand with programs in five countries and for three of four gorilla subspecies. human presence may negatively affect wild gorillas, potentially lowering immunity and increasing the likelihood of acquiring human-borne disease. yet, behavioral impacts of humans on wild gorilla behavior remain largely unexplored, particularly for western lowland gorillas. we evaluate the impact of tourist presence, human obser ... | 2010 | 20806337 |
| blood groups in the species survival plan(®), european endangered species program, and managed in situ populations of bonobo (pan paniscus), common chimpanzee (pan troglodytes), gorilla (gorilla ssp.), and orangutan (pongo pygmaeus ssp.). | blood groups of humans and great apes have long been considered similar, although they are not interchangeable between species. in this study, human monoclonal antibody technology was used to assign human abo blood groups to whole blood samples from great apes housed in north american and european zoos and in situ managed populations, as a practical means to assist blood transfusion situations for these species. from a subset of each of the species (bonobo, common chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangu ... | 2010 | 20853409 |
| retrieving chronological age from dental remains of early fossil hominins to reconstruct human growth in the past. | a chronology of dental development in pan troglodytes is arguably the best available model with which to compare and contrast reconstructed dental chronologies of the earliest fossil hominins. establishing a time scale for growth is a requirement for being able to make further comparative observations about timing and rate during both dento-skeletal growth and brain growth. the absolute timing of anterior tooth crown and root formation appears not to reflect the period of somatic growth. in cont ... | 2010 | 20855313 |
| malaria: the gorilla connection. | | 2010 | 20864986 |
| origin of the human malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum in gorillas. | plasmodium falciparum is the most prevalent and lethal of the malaria parasites infecting humans, yet the origin and evolutionary history of this important pathogen remain controversial. here we develop a single-genome amplification strategy to identify and characterize plasmodium spp. dna sequences in faecal samples from wild-living apes. among nearly 3,000 specimens collected from field sites throughout central africa, we found plasmodium infection in chimpanzees (pan troglodytes) and western ... | 2010 | 20864995 |
| nest site ecology of the cross river gorilla at the kagwene gorilla sanctuary, cameroon, with special reference to anthropogenic influence. | the cross river gorilla is the most endangered of all great apes. it is currently found in 14 apparently geographically separate and increasingly isolated populations, which face severe threats from habitat loss and the bushmeat trade. recent years have seen greater efforts to conserve the cross river gorilla across the landscape, but details of the ecology of individual populations that might help in conservation initiatives are lacking. here, we report on the production of the first habitat ma ... | 2010 | 20872882 |
| brief communication: shape analysis of the mt 1 proximal articular surface in fossil hominins and shod and unshod homo. | as a follow-up study to proctor et al. (am j phys anthropol 135 (2008) 216-224), this study quantifies the first metatarsal proximal articular surface using three-dimensional morphometrics to test for differences in articular surface shape between habitually shod and habitually unshod humans. in addition, differences in shape between homo, pan, gorilla, and hylobates are compared to the fossil hominin specimens a. l. 333-54, stw 562, stw 573 ("little foot"), oh 8, skx 5017, and sk 1813. no diffe ... | 2010 | 20925078 |
| surgical implantation of a cardiac resynchronization therapy device in a western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) with fibrosing cardiomyopathy. | a 24-yr-old, male western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) was diagnosed in march of 2003 with congestive heart failure (chf). transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated global left and right ventricular hypokinesia with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 0.20. at the time of diagnosis, the animal exhibited symptoms and signs of chf with minimal exertion (new york heart association class iii). over a 16-mo period, the severity of chf progressed to class iv (res ... | 2010 | 20945635 |
| successful treatment of acute systemic anaphylaxis in a western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | this brief communication describes the successful treatment of acute systemic anaphylaxis in a wild-born but captive infant western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the republic of congo. the infant demonstrated signs of acute respiratory distress, lingual swelling, and reaction to intradermal tuberculin, given 55 hr earlier. details of the treatment with steroids, anesthetic induction, and i.v. epinephrine are all reported, and potential antigens that may have initiated the anaphyla ... | 2010 | 20945654 |
| observations on the skeleton of the gorilla. | | 1946 | 20990846 |
| dermatoglyphics of the gorilla. | | 1946 | 20990847 |
| notes on two gorilla skeletons. | | 1945 | 21005544 |
| african great apes are naturally infected with polyomaviruses closely related to merkel cell polyomavirus. | the oncogenic merkel cell polyomavirus (mcpyv) infects humans worldwide, but little is known about the occurrence of viruses related to mcpyv in the closest phylogenetic relatives of humans, great apes. we analyzed samples from 30 wild chimpanzees and one captive gorilla and identified two new groups of polyomaviruses (pyvs). these new viruses are by far the closest relatives to mcpyv described to date, providing the first evidence of the natural occurrence of pyvs related to mcpyv in wild great ... | 2010 | 21047967 |
| a novel adenovirus of western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | adenoviruses (adv) broadly infect vertebrate hosts including a variety of primates. we identified a novel adv in the feces of captive gorillas by isolation in cell culture, electron microscopy and pcr. from the supernatants of infected cultures we amplified dna polymerase (dpol), preterminal protein (ptp) and hexon gene sequences with generic pan primate adv pcr assays. the sequences in-between were amplified by long-distance pcrs of 2-10 kb length, resulting in a final sequence of 15.6 kb. phyl ... | 2010 | 21054831 |
| proximate composition of milk from free-ranging mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei). | published data on milk composition for nonhuman primates, especially great apes, are lacking. milk composition data are important for understanding the physiology and evolution of mammalian milk production, as well as the nutritional requirements of infants. for many primate species these data have added relevance because of the need to hand raise infants orphaned by poaching or separated from their mothers in captivity. the proximate composition (dry matter (dm), protein, fat, sugar) of free-ra ... | 2010 | 21061295 |
| notes on the upper extremity of the gorilla. | | 1946 | 21064902 |
| remarks on the brain of the gorilla. | | 1946 | 21064903 |
| ecological divergence and medial cuneiform morphology in gorillas. | gorillas are more closely related to each other than to any other extant primate and are all terrestrial knuckle-walkers, but taxa differ along a gradient of dietary strategies and the frequency of arboreality in their behavioral repertoire. in this study, we test the hypothesis that medial cuneiform morphology falls on a morphocline in gorillas that tracks function related to hallucial abduction ability and relative frequency of arboreality. this morphocline predicts that western gorillas, bein ... | 2010 | 21093014 |
| in vivo bone strain and finite-element modeling of the craniofacial haft in catarrhine primates. | hypotheses regarding patterns of stress, strain and deformation in the craniofacial skeleton are central to adaptive explanations for the evolution of primate craniofacial form. the complexity of craniofacial skeletal morphology makes it difficult to evaluate these hypotheses with in vivo bone strain data. in this paper, new in vivo bone strain data from the intraorbital surfaces of the supraorbital torus, postorbital bar and postorbital septum, the anterior surface of the postorbital bar, and t ... | 2010 | 21105871 |
| complete nucleotide sequence and evolutionary analysis of a gorilla foamy virus. | to shed light on primate foamy virus (fv) evolution, we determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the gorilla simian foamy virus (sfvgor). starting from a conserved region in the integrase (in) domain of the pol gene we cloned the viral genome to the 5' and 3' ltr into plasmid vectors and elucidated its nucleotide sequence. the sequences of both ltrs were determined by nucleotide sequencing of separate pcr products from the primer-binding site or the bel region and ltrs. all protein motifs ... | 2010 | 21106805 |
| evolution of subterminal satellite (stsat) repeats in hominids. | subterminal satellite (stsat) repeats, consisting of 32-bp-long at-rich units (gatatttccatgtt(t/c)atacagatagcggtgta), were first found in chimpanzee and gorilla (african great apes) as one of the major components of heterochromatic regions located proximal to telomeres of chromosomes. stsat repeats have not been found in orangutan (asian great ape) or human. this patchy distribution among species suggested that the stsat repeats were present in the common ancestor of african great apes and subse ... | 2010 | 21136140 |
| genome digging: insight into the mitochondrial genome of homo. | a fraction of the neanderthal mitochondrial genome sequence has a similarity with a 5,839-bp nuclear dna sequence of mitochondrial origin (numt) on the human chromosome 1. this fact has never been interpreted. although this phenomenon may be attributed to contamination and mosaic assembly of neanderthal mtdna from short sequencing reads, we explain the mysterious similarity by integration of this numt (mtancestor-1) into the nuclear genome of the common ancestor of neanderthals and modern humans ... | 2010 | 21151557 |
| buffalo hepcidin: characterization of cdna and study of antimicrobial property. | hepcidin, a novel gene encoded, 25 residue, 2-3 kda cysteine rich cationic peptide synthesized in liver cells play an important role in iron metabolism in addition to its antimicrobial activity. in this study hepcidin cdna expressed on hepatocytes of bubalus bubalis has been characterized and the antibacterial activity of buffalo hepcidin analog has been determined. the complete buffalo hepcidin sequence is of 324 bp and have an orf of 249 nucleotides from 14 to 262. the sequence analysis at nuc ... | 2010 | 21161377 |
| influence of the task on hand preference: individual differences among gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | the degree of task complexity and bimanual complementarity have been proposed as factors affecting lateralization strength in humans. however, a large number of studies have demonstrated group-level lateral hand bias for different manual activities in numerous non-human primate species. however, no study has tested the effects that a variety of tasks may have in inducing differences in hand preference. here, we aim to test if 3 adult gorillas exhibited a greater hand preference bias performing 4 ... | 2010 | 21212681 |
| evolutionary glycomics: characterization of milk oligosaccharides in primates. | free oligosaccharides are abundant components of mammalian milk and have primary roles as prebiotic compounds, in immune defense, and in brain development. a mass spectrometry-based technique is applied to profile milk oligosaccharides from apes (chimpanzee, gorilla, and siamang), new world monkeys (golden lion tamarin and common marmoset), and an old world monkey (rhesus). the purpose of this study is to evaluate the patterns of primate milk oligosaccharide composition from a phylogenetic persp ... | 2011 | 21214271 |
| complete coding sequences and phylogenetic analysis of porcine bocavirus. | here we report, for the first time, the nearly full-length genome sequence of porcine bocavirus (pbov), a recently discovered parvovirus from pigs. phylogenetic trees based on this genome sequence showed that pbov belongs to the branch containing the genus bocavirus, which comprises canine minute virus (cnmv), bovine parvovirus, gorilla bocavirus and human bocavirus (hbov), and was most closely related to the group containing cnmv. pbov was predicted to contain three potential orfs encoding the ... | 2011 | 21228124 |
| gorilla and orangutan brains conform to the primate cellular scaling rules: implications for human evolution. | gorillas and orangutans are primates at least as large as humans, but their brains amount to about one third of the size of the human brain. this discrepancy has been used as evidence that the human brain is about 3 times larger than it should be for a primate species of its body size. in contrast to the view that the human brain is special in its size, we have suggested that it is the great apes that might have evolved bodies that are unusually large, on the basis of our recent finding that the ... | 2011 | 21228547 |
| aging increases inattentional blindness to the gorilla in our midst. | when engaged in an attention-demanding task, people are surprisingly vulnerable to inattentional blindness--the failure to notice an unexpected event. two theories of cognitive aging, attentional capacity models and inhibitory deficit models, make opposite predictions about age differences in susceptibility to inattentional blindness. we tested these predictions using an inattentional blindness paradigm developed by simons and chabris (1999) and found that older adults were more likely to experi ... | 2011 | 21261412 |
| nasopharyngeal carcinoma as a paradigm of cancer genetics. | the unusual incidence patterns for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (npc) in china, northeast india, arctic inuit, peninsular and island southeast asia, polynesian islanders, and north africans indicate a role for npc risk genes in chinese, chinese-related, and not-obviously chinese-related populations. renewed interest in npc genetic risk has been stimulated by a hypothesis that npc population patterns originated in bai-yue / pre-austronesian-speaking aborigines and were dispersed during the last glaci ... | 2011 | 21272439 |
| comparative studies of placentation and immunology in non-human primates suggest a scenario for the evolution of deep trophoblast invasion and an explanation for human pregnancy disorders. | deep trophoblast invasion in the placental bed has been considered the hallmark of human pregnancy. it occurs by two routes, interstitial and endovascular, and results in transformation of the walls of the spiral arteries as they traverse the decidua and the inner third of the myometrium. disturbances in this process are associated with reproductive disorders such preeclampsia. in contrast, trophoblast invasion in old world monkeys occurs only by the endovascular route and seldom reaches the myo ... | 2011 | 21273370 |
| a comparative study on testicular microstructure and relative sperm production in gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. | we performed histological analyses for comparing testicular microstructure between the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan. testicular samples were obtained by autopsy or biopsy from 10 gorillas, 11 chimpanzees, and 7 orangutans from several zoos and institutes. the seminiferous epithelia were thick in the chimpanzee and orangutan but thin in the gorilla. leydig cells in the interstitial tissue were abundant in the gorilla. the acrosomic system was extremely well developed in the orangutans. our ... | 2011 | 21287585 |
| mass spectral analyses of the two major apolipoproteins of great ape high density lipoproteins. | the two major apolipoproteins associated with human and chimpanzee (pan troglodytes) high density lipoproteins (hdl) are apoa-i and dimeric apoa-ii. although humans are closely related to great apes, apolipoprotein data do not exist for bonobos (pan paniscus), western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the sumatran orangutans (pongo abelii). in the absence of any data, other great apes simply have been assumed to have dimeric apoa-ii while other primates and most other mammals have b ... | 2009 | 21298813 |
| individual differences in susceptibility to inattentional blindness. | inattentional blindness refers to the finding that people do not always see what appears in their gaze. though inattentional blindness affects large percentages of people, it is unclear if there are individual differences in susceptibility. the present study addressed whether individual differences in attentional control, as reflected by variability in working memory capacity, modulate susceptibility to inattentional blindness. participants watched a classic inattentional blindness video (simons ... | 2011 | 21299325 |
| gorilla success. | | 2011 | 21322173 |
| great apes use weight as a cue to find hidden food. | bonobos (pan paniscus; n=5), orangutans (pongo pygmaeus abelii; n=6), and a gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla; n=1) were presented with two opaque cups, one empty and one baited (containing two bananas). subjects had to independently gain weight information about the contents of the cups to find the hidden food. six apes attained above chance level within a total of 16 trials. successful subjects spontaneously adopted the method of successively lifting the cups and thus comparing their weight bef ... | 2010 | 21328591 |
| male-immature relationships in multi-male groups of mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei). | we examined the pattern and possible functions of social interactions between adult males and immatures in three free-ranging, multi-male groups of mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei). previous studies conducted during the 1970s when groups contained one to three adult males concluded that male-immature relationships were likely to be a form of low-cost paternal investment [stewart, mountain gorillas: three decades of research at karisoke. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 200 ... | 2010 | 21328594 |
| inferential reasoning by exclusion in great apes, lesser apes, and spider monkeys. | using the cups task, in which subjects are presented with limited visual or auditory information that can be used to deduce the location of a hidden reward, call (2004) found prima facie evidence of inferential reasoning by exclusion in several great ape species. one bonobo (pan paniscus) and two gorillas (gorilla gorilla) appeared to make such inferences in both the visual and auditory domains. however, common chimpanzees (pan troglodytes) were successful only in the visual domain, and bornean ... | 2011 | 21341913 |
| detection and genetic characterization of enteroviruses circulating among wild populations of chimpanzees in cameroon: relationship with human and simian enteroviruses. | enteroviruses (evs), members of the family picornaviridae, are a genetically and antigenically diverse range of viruses causing acute infections in humans and several old world monkey (owm) species. despite their known wide distribution in primates, nothing is currently known about the occurrence, frequency, and genetic diversity of enteroviruses infecting apes. to investigate this, 27 chimpanzee and 27 gorilla fecal samples collected from undisturbed jungle areas with minimal human contact in c ... | 2011 | 21345956 |
| debilitating clinical disease in a wild-born captive western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) co-infected with varicella zoster virus (vzv) and simian t-lymphotropic virus (stlv). | a wild-born, 34-yr-old female western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) was transferred between zoologic collections in the united kingdom. adjustment to its new environment was difficult and a series of health problems ensued. progressive severe illness of multiple etiologies, and a failure to respond to multiple therapies, led to its euthanasia 5 mo later. disease processes included severe thoracic and axillary cutaneous ulceration of t2-3 dermatome distribution, gastroenteritis, ulcer ... | 2010 | 21370655 |
| toddlers' duration of attention towards putative threat. | although individual differences in reactions to novelty in the toddler years have been consistently linked to risk for developing anxious behavior, toddlers' attention towards a novel, putatively threatening stimulus while in the presence of other enjoyable activities has rarely been examined as a precursor to such risk. the current study examined how attention towards an angry-looking gorilla mask in a room with alternative opportunities for play in 24-month-old toddlers predicted social inhibi ... | 2011 | 21373365 |
| timing of ectocranial suture activity in gorilla gorilla as related to cranial volume and dental eruption. | research has shown that pan and homo have similar ectocranial suture synostosis patterns and a similar suture ontogeny (relative timing of suture fusion during the species ontogeny). this ontogeny includes patency during and after neurocranial expansion with a delayed bony response associated with adaptation to biomechanical forces generated by mastication. here we investigate these relationships for gorilla by examining the association among ectocranial suture morphology, cranial volume (as a p ... | 2011 | 21385182 |
| probiotic lactobacillus rhamnosus downregulates fcer1 and hrh4 expression in human mast cells. | to investigate the effects of four probiotic bacteria and their combination on human mast cell gene expression using microarray analysis. | 2011 | 21390145 |
| who killed porthos? genetic tracking of a gorilla death. | we describe a novel application of "forensic" genetics to study a key demographic event in a population of wild gorillas. we used microsatellite genotyping and non-invasively collected dna samples to identify one individual western lowland gorilla as being most likely to have caused the death of another in lopé national park, gabon. data from relatively few genotypes permitted the identification of female transfer events and the interpretation of individual behavior that was previously impossibl ... | 2007 | 21396025 |
| the 800-pound gorilla in the healthcare living room. | | 2011 | 21396496 |
| behavioral responses of silverback gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) to videos. | this study examined the impact of video presentations on the behavior of 4 silverback, western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). on each of 5 occasions, gorillas viewed 6 types of videos (blue screen, humans, an all-male or mixed-sex group engaged in low activity, and an all-male or mixed-sex group engaged in agonistic behavior). the study recorded behavioral responses and watching rates. all gorillas preferred dynamic over static videos; 3 watched videos depicting gorillas significant ... | 2011 | 21442506 |
| historical sampling reveals dramatic demographic changes in western gorilla populations. | today many large mammals live in small, fragmented populations, but it is often unclear whether this subdivision is the result of long-term or recent events. demographic modeling using genetic data can estimate changes in long-term population sizes while temporal sampling provides a way to compare genetic variation present today with that sampled in the past. in order to better understand the dynamics associated with the divergences of great ape populations, these analytical approaches were appl ... | 2011 | 21457536 |
| human metapneumovirus infection in wild mountain gorillas, rwanda. | the genetic relatedness of mountain gorillas and humans has led to concerns about interspecies transmission of infectious agents. human-to-gorilla transmission may explain human metapneumovirus in 2 wild mountain gorillas that died during a respiratory disease outbreak in rwanda in 2009. surveillance is needed to ensure survival of these critically endangered animals. | 2011 | 21470468 |
| fatal balamuthia mandrillaris infection in a gorilla - first case of balamuthiasis in germany. | background a 12-year-old female western lowland gorilla died in a zoological garden in germany after exhibiting general neurological signs. methods balamuthia mandrillaris was identified as causative agent by indirect immunofluorescent staining of brain sections and confirmed by pcr and respective sequencing. results the animal suffered from a chronic progressive necrotizing amebic meningoencephalitis. conclusion this is the first case of balamuthia amebic encephalitis in germany. | 2011 | 21496054 |
| recombination analysis based on the complete genome of bocavirus. | abstract: bocavirus include bovine parvovirus, minute virus of canine, porcine bocavirus, gorilla bocavirus, and human bocaviruses 1-4 (hbovs). although recent reports showed that recombination happened in bocavirus, no systematical study investigated the recombination of bocavirus. the present study performed the phylogenetic and recombination analysis of bocavirus over the complete genomes available in genbank. results confirmed that recombination existed among bocavirus, including the likely ... | 2011 | 21507266 |
| local traditions in gorilla manual skill: evidence for observational learning of behavioral organization. | elaborate manual skills of food processing are known in several species of great ape; but their manner of acquisition is controversial. local, "cultural" traditions show the influence of social learning, but it is uncertain whether this includes the ability to imitate the organization of behavior. dispute has centered on whether program-level imitation contributes to the acquisition of feeding techniques in gorillas. here, we show that captive western gorillas at port lympne, kent, have develope ... | 2011 | 21512796 |
| infants' knowledge of their own species. | recognition of individuals at first sight is important for social species and can be achieved by attending to facial or body information. previous research suggests that infants possess a perceptual template for evolutionarily relevant stimuli, which may include humans, dangerous animals (e.g. snakes), but not non-dangerous animals. to be effective, such a mechanism should result in a systematic preference for attending to humans over non-dangerous animals. using a preferential looking paradigm, ... | 2011 | 21536558 |
| target animacy influences gorilla handedness. | we investigated the unimanual actions of a biological family group of twelve western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) using a methodological approach designed to assess behavior within social context from a bottom-up perspective. measures of both the lateralization of unimanual actions (left, right) and the target of the action (animate, inanimate) were assessed during dual, synchronized video observations of naturalistic behavior. this paper demonstrates a corelationship between hande ... | 2011 | 21562817 |
| relationship between behavior, adrenal activity, and environment in zoo-housed western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | monitoring adrenal activity through noninvasive fecal hormone sampling is rapidly gaining popularity as a tool to assess zoo animal welfare. however, few studies have sought to investigate the interrelationships between behavior, adrenal activity, and environment, and ask whether both behavioral and adrenal monitoring strategies are required to assess welfare sufficiently. we present the findings of a 9-month study of a small group (one male, two females) of western lowland gorillas, gorilla gor ... | 2011 | 21563213 |
| two-step multiplex polymerase chain reaction improves the speed and accuracy of genotyping using dna from noninvasive and museum samples. | many studies in molecular ecology rely upon the genotyping of large numbers of low-quantity dna extracts derived from noninvasive or museum specimens. to overcome low amplification success rates and avoid genotyping errors such as allelic dropout and false alleles, multiple polymerase chain reaction (pcr) replicates for each sample are typically used. recently, two-step multiplex procedures have been introduced which drastically increase the success rate and efficiency of genotyping. however, co ... | 2009 | 21564562 |
| the magic cup: great apes and domestic dogs (canis familiaris) individuate objects according to their properties. | despite current interest in dog (canis familiaris) cognition, very little is known about how dogs represent objects and how they compare with other species, such as the great apes. therefore, we investigated how dogs and great apes (chimpanzees [pan troglodytes], bonobos [pan paniscus], orangutans [pongo pygmaeus], gorillas [gorilla gorilla]) individuate objects in a classical violation of expectation paradigm. we used a container (magic cup) with a double bottom that allowed us to change the ty ... | 2011 | 21574687 |
| nutritional geometry: gorillas prioritize non-protein energy while consuming surplus protein. | it is widely assumed that terrestrial food webs are built on a nitrogen-limited base and consequently herbivores must compensate through selection of high-protein foods and efficient nitrogen retention. like many folivorous primates, gorillas' diet selection supports this assumption, as they apparently prefer protein-rich foods. our study of mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei) in uganda revealed that, in some periods, carbohydrate-rich fruits displace a large portion of protein-rich leaves in t ... | 2011 | 21632622 |
| the effect of feeding enrichment methods on the behavior of captive western lowland gorillas. | three feeding enrichment treatments were tested in an outdoor yard used by six western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). in "yard-toss," forage was thrown by hand over one third of the yard. in "set-up," forage and browse were hand-scattered throughout the yard. "set-up enriched" was similar with the addition of either a hay- and forage-filled feeder or forage-filled boomer ball(s) suspended from a climbing structure. each treatment was presented on 5 d. behavior was recorded for 30 mi ... | 2011 | 21656848 |
| effects of combination birth control on estrous behavior in captive western lowland gorillas, gorilla gorilla gorilla. | combination birth control pills (cbc) are one of the most common birth control methods used for western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) housed in zoos. since zoos are interested in maintaining as many natural behaviors as possible, it is important to know how contraception may affect social and sexual interactions among group members. although some data are available regarding the influence of the pill on sexual behavior in human females, no data are available on its effects on gorill ... | 2011 | 21674603 |
| functional anatomy and adaptation of male gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) with comparison to male orangutans (pongo pygmaeus). | great apes diversified during the miocene in old world forests. two lineages, gorillas in africa and orangutans in asia, have sexual dimorphisms of super-sized males, though they presumably diverged from a smaller common ancestor. we test the hypothesis that they increased in body mass independently and convergently, and that their many postcranial differences reflect locomotor differences. whole body dissections of five adult male gorillas and four adult male orangutans allowed quantification o ... | 2011 | 21809463 |
| femoral morphology and femoropelvic musculoskeletal anatomy of humans and great apes: a comparative virtopsy study. | the proximal femoral morphology of fossil hominins is routinely interpreted in terms of muscular topography and associated locomotor modes. however, the detailed correspondence between hard and soft tissue structures in the proximal femoral region of extant great apes is relatively unknown, because dissection protocols typically do not comprise in-depth osteological descriptions. here, we use computed tomography and virtopsy (virtual dissection) for non-invasive examination of the femoropelvic m ... | 2011 | 21809454 |
| diversity of microsporidia (fungi: microsporidia) among captive great apes in european zoos and african sanctuaries: evidence for zoonotic transmission? | abstract: two hundred and seventeen captive great apes (150 chimpanzees, pan troglodytes; 14 bonobos, pan paniscus; 53 western gorillas, gorilla gorilla) and 20 personnel from thirteen european zoos and two african sanctuaries were sampled and examined in order to determine the occurrence ofenterocytozoon bieneusi and species of encephalitozoon in faecal specimens and to compare the epidemiological situation between zoos and sanctuaries. microsporidia were detected at all sampling sites. sequenc ... | 2011 | 21776888 |
| the limits of endowment effects in great apes (pan paniscus, pan troglodytes, gorilla gorilla, pongo pygmaeus). | the endowment effect describes the bias that people often value things that they possess more than things they do not possess. thus, they are often reluctant to trade items in their possession for items of equivalent value. some nonhuman primates appear to share this bias with humans, but it remains an open question whether they show endowment effects to the same extent as humans do. we investigated endowment effects in all four great ape species (pan paniscus, pan troglodytes, gorilla gorilla, ... | 2011 | 21767009 |
| african monkeys are infected by plasmodium falciparum nonhuman primate-specific strains. | recent molecular exploration of the plasmodium species circulating in great apes in africa has revealed the existence of a large and previously unknown diversity of plasmodium. for instance, gorillas were found to be infected by parasites closely related to plasmodium falciparum, suggesting that the human malignant malaria agent may have arisen after a transfer from gorillas. although this scenario is likely in light of the data collected in great apes, it remained to be ascertained whether p. f ... | 2011 | 21730135 |
| copy number variation analysis in the great apes reveals species-specific patterns of structural variation. | copy number variants (cnvs) are increasingly acknowledged as an important source of evolutionary novelties in the human lineage. however, our understanding of their significance is still hindered by the lack of primate cnv data. we performed intraspecific comparative genomic hybridizations to identify loci harboring copy number variants in each of the four great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. for the first time, we could analyze differences in cnv location and frequency in ... | 2011 | 21824994 |
| deep trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodelling in the placental bed of the lowland gorilla. | in contrast to baboon or rhesus macaque, trophoblast invasion in the human placental bed occurs by the interstitial as well as the endovascular route and reaches as deep as the inner myometrium. we here describe two rare specimens of gorilla placenta. in the light of recent findings in the chimpanzee, we postulated the occurrence of deep invasion in gorilla pregnancy. tissues were processed for histology (pas, orcein), lectin staining (ulex europaeus agglutinin 1) and immunohistochemistry (cytok ... | 2011 | 21705078 |
| extreme conservation leads to recovery of the virunga mountain gorillas. | as wildlife populations are declining, conservationists are under increasing pressure to measure the effectiveness of different management strategies. conventional conservation measures such as law enforcement and community development projects are typically designed to minimize negative human influences upon a species and its ecosystem. in contrast, we define "extreme" conservation as efforts targeted to deliberately increase positive human influences, including veterinary care and close monito ... | 2011 | 21687709 |
| gorilla genome structural variation reveals evolutionary parallelisms with chimpanzee. | structural variation has played an important role in the evolutionary restructuring of human and great ape genomes. recent analyses have suggested that the genomes of chimpanzee and human have been particularly enriched for this form of genetic variation. here, we set out to assess the extent of structural variation in the gorilla lineage by generating 10-fold genomic sequence coverage from a western lowland gorilla and integrating these data into a physical and cytogenetic framework of structur ... | 2011 | 21685127 |
| genetic heterogeneity in internal transcribed spacer genes of balantidium coli (litostomatea, ciliophora). | the species balantidium coli is the only ciliate that parasitizes humans. it has been described in other primates, and it has been proposed that the species b. suis from pigs and b. struthionis from ostriches are synonyms of b. coli. previous genetic analysis of pig and ostrich balantidium isolates found a genetic polymorphism in the its region but its taxonomic relevance was not established. we have extended the genetic analysis to balantidium isolates of pig, gorilla, human and ostrich origin. ... | 2011 | 21840258 |
| comparing the performances of apes (gorilla gorilla, pan troglodytes, pongo pygmaeus) and human children (homo sapiens) in the floating peanut task. | recently, mendes et al. [1] described the use of a liquid tool (water) in captive orangutans. here, we tested chimpanzees and gorillas for the first time with the same "floating peanut task." none of the subjects solved the task. in order to better understand the cognitive demands of the task, we further tested other populations of chimpanzees and orangutans with the variation of the peanut initially floating or not. twenty percent of the chimpanzees but none of the orangutans were successful. a ... | 2011 | 21687710 |
| Traditional-medical knowledge and perception of pangolins (Manis sps) among the Awori people, Southwestern Nigeria. | ABSTRACT: medicines is taken from the wild; hence demand by traditional medicine is a cause of over-exploitation of wild animals. Indiscriminate use of endangered species portends grievous implications for biodiversity conservation. This study investigated the dynamics of the use of pangolin in trado-medicinal preparations amongst the Awori people. | 2011 | 21884607 |
| morphological evolution through integration: a quantitative study of cranial integration in homo, pan, gorilla and pongo. | morphological integration refers to coordinated variation among traits that are closely related in development and/or function. patterns of integration can offer important insight into the structural relationship between phenotypic units, providing a framework to address questions about phenotypic evolvability and constraints. integrative features of the primate cranium have recently become a popular subject of study. however, an important question that still remains under-investigated is: what ... | 2012 | 22178399 |
| Unusual feeding behavior in wild great apes, a window to understand origins of self-medication in humans: Role of sociality and physiology on learning process. | Certain toxic plants are beneficial for health if small amounts are ingested infrequently and in a specific context of illness. Among our closest living relatives, chimpanzees are found to consume plants with pharmacological properties. Providing insight on the origins of human self-medication, this study investigates the role social systems and physiology (namely gut specialization) play on learning mechanisms involved in the consumption of unusual and potentially bioactive foods by two great a ... | 2012 | 21888922 |
| a revised timeline for the origin of plasmodium falciparum as a human pathogen. | while plasmodium falciparum is known to have had a strong effect on human evolution, the time period when p. falciparum first infected ancestors of modern humans has remained uncertain. recent advances demonstrated that p. falciparum evolved from ancestors of gorilla parasites via host switching. here, we estimate the range of dates during which this host switch may have occurred. dna sequences of portions of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene obtained from gorilla parasites closely related to ... | 2011 | 22183792 |