| genetic diversity and phylogeographic clustering of sivcpzptt in wild chimpanzees in cameroon. | it is now well established that the clade of simian immunodeficiency viruses (sivs) infecting west central african chimpanzees (pan troglodytes troglodytes) and western gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) comprises the progenitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (hiv-1). in this study, we have greatly expanded our previous molecular epidemiological survey of sivcpz in wild chimpanzees in cameroon. the new results confirm a wide but uneven distribution of sivcpzptt in p. t. troglodytes thro ... | 2007 | 17651775 |
| using photogrammetry and color scoring to assess sexual dimorphism in wild western gorillas (gorilla gorilla). | investigating sexual dimorphism is important for our understanding of its influence on reproductive strategies including male-male competition, mate choice, and sexual conflict. measuring physical traits in wild animals can be logistically challenging and disruptive for the animals. therefore body size and ornament variation in wild primates have rarely been quantified. gorillas are amongst the most sexually dimorphic and dichromatic primates. adult males (silverbacks) possess a prominent sagitt ... | 2007 | 17657788 |
| mapping human genetic ancestry. | the human genome is a mosaic with respect to its evolutionary history. based on a phylogenetic analysis of 23,210 dna sequence alignments from human, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and rhesus, we present a map of human genetic ancestry. for about 23% of our genome, we share no immediate genetic ancestry with our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. this encompasses genes and exons to the same extent as intergenic regions. we conclude that about 1/3 of our genes started to evolve as human-sp ... | 2007 | 17660505 |
| a comparative volumetric analysis of the amygdaloid complex and basolateral division in the human and ape brain. | the amygdaloid complex functions to facilitate effective appraisal of the social environment and is an essential component of the neural systems subserving social behavior. despite its critical role in mediating social interaction, the amygdaloid complex has not attracted the same attention as the isocortex in most evolutionary analyses. we performed a comparative analysis of the amygdaloid complex in the hominoids to address the lack of comparative information available for this structure in th ... | 2007 | 17661399 |
| lessons from naked apes and their infections. | human infections come from two main sources. our 'family heirlooms' have co-evolved with the host as we diverged from the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, and these are often vertically transmitted. our 'new acquisitions' come from cross-species infections, and these are typically horizontally transmitted. compared with other apes, naked apes harbor a larger variety of pathogens, acquired from the domesticated and commensal non-primate species which share our habitat, as well as from e ... | 2007 | 17669206 |
| replication profile of pcdh11x and pcdh11y, a gene pair located in the non-pseudoautosomal homologous region xq21.3/yp11.2. | in order to investigate the replication timing properties of pcdh11x and pcdh11y, a pair of protocadherin genes located in the hominid-specific non-pseudoautosomal homologous region xq21.3/yp11.2, we conducted a fish-based comparative study in different human and non-human primate (gorilla gorilla) cell types. the replication profiles of three genes from different regions of chromosome x (zfx, xist and atrx) were used as terms of reference. particular emphasis was given to the evaluation of alle ... | 2007 | 17671842 |
| hominoid lineage specific amplification of low-copy repeats on 22q11.2 (lcr22s) associated with velo-cardio-facial/digeorge syndrome. | segmental duplications or low-copy repeats (lcrs) constitute approximately 5% of the sequenced portion of the human genome and are associated with many human congenital anomaly disorders. the low-copy repeats on chromosome 22q11.2 (lcr22s) mediate chromosomal rearrangements resulting in deletions, duplications and translocations. the evolutionary mechanisms leading to lcr22 formation is unknown. four genes, usp18, bcr, ggtla and ggt, map adjacent to the lcr22s and pseudogene copies are located w ... | 2007 | 17675367 |
| resting heart rate and tympanic temperature in operant conditioned western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | the conscious, resting heart rate and body temperature of healthy western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) is not reported in the literature. to obtain this information, two clinically healthy adult male western lowland gorillas in a training program were conditioned to allow auscultation and obtain tympanic temperatures. the mean heart rate was 73.8 +/- 8.96 beats per minute (n = 176), and it was lower than mean heart rate reported in studies on anesthetized gorillas. the mean tympani ... | 2007 | 17679523 |
| spontaneously occurring mother-infant swapping and the relationships of infants with their biological and foster mothers in a captive group of lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | the present study describes spontaneously occurring infant-mother swapping and the relationships of infants with their biological and foster mothers after swapping in a captive social group of lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). after infant-swapping took place between a primiparous mother with a neonate and a multiparous mother with a 10-month-old infant, the mothers provided appropriate maternal care, including nursing, to their adopted infants, but the older infant still sought refuge ... | 2007 | 17683751 |
| discrete quantity judgments in the great apes (pan paniscus, pan troglodytes, gorilla gorilla, pongo pygmaeus): the effect of presenting whole sets versus item-by-item. | the authors examined quantity-based judgments for up to 10 items for simultaneous and sequential whole sets as well as for sequentially dropped items in chimpanzees (pan troglodytes), gorillas (gorilla gorilla), bonobos (pan paniscus), and orangutans (pongo pygmaeus). in experiment 1, subjects had to choose the larger of 2 quantities presented in 2 separate dishes either simultaneously or 1 dish after the other. representatives of all species were capable of selecting the larger of 2 quantities ... | 2007 | 17696650 |
| a new approach to estimate parameters of speciation models with application to apes. | how populations diverge and give rise to distinct species remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology, with important implications for a wide range of fields, from conservation genetics to human evolution. a promising approach is to estimate parameters of simple speciation models using polymorphism data from multiple loci. existing methods, however, make a number of assumptions that severely limit their applicability, notably, no gene flow after the populations split and no intralocus ... | 2007 | 17712021 |
| oldest gorilla ages our joint ancestor. | | 2007 | 17713490 |
| a new species of great ape from the late miocene epoch in ethiopia. | with the discovery of ardipithecus, orrorin and sahelanthropus, our knowledge of hominid evolution before the emergence of pliocene species of australopithecus has significantly increased, extending the hominid fossil record back to at least 6 million years (myr) ago. however, because of the dearth of fossil hominoid remains in sub-saharan africa spanning the period 12-7 myr ago, nothing is known of the actual timing and mode of divergence of the african ape and hominid lineages. most genomic-ba ... | 2007 | 17713533 |
| analysis of structure, function, and evolutionary origin of the ob gene product--leptin. | leptin, the ob gene product, is a 167 amino acid polypeptide known to play a key role in regulating the fat stores of the body and is found in all eukaryotes, including mammals, aves, and also in invertebrates. to gain insight into the structure-function relation and origin of leptin, we have analyzed the amino acid sequence of leptin from 23 species by computing the frequency of occurrence of amino acids, their secondary structure, sequence homology, et cetera. extensive conservation is observe ... | 2007 | 17718597 |
| selective logging, habitat quality and home range use by sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees: a case study from an active logging concession in southeast cameroon. | we examined range use by great apes during logging activities and investigated associations between local variations in ape abundance and changes in the structure of the habitat or in the availability of fruits after disturbances. we carried out two annual censuses of western lowland gorilla (g. g. gorilla) and chimpanzee populations (pan t. troglodytes) in an active logging concession in southeast cameroon. the results suggest that gorillas may adapt their range use to avoid most recently logge ... | 2008 | 17726332 |
| the gorilla. | | 1982 | 17736246 |
| a gorilla-sized ape from the miocene of india. | a large ape existed in india at the close of the miocene or the beginning of the pliocene epochs; this ape shows a complex of anatomical structures at the opposite pole from its contemporary, ramapithecus. although found in the same beds, the two seldom occur at the same exact sites and levels. considering the thickness of these beds, recovery close to haritalyangar does not, of itself, prove sympatry of these two different kinds of hominoidea. however, both are definitely present at one recentl ... | 1971 | 17747306 |
| cytoarchitecture of the gorilla brain. | | 1938 | 17752339 |
| knuckle walking signal in the manual digits of pan and gorilla. | this article examines the curvature of the manual proximal and middle phalanges of species belonging to pan, gorilla, ateles, macaca, pongo, hylobates, and cebus to determine whether middle phalangeal curvature, when considered in conjunction with proximal phalangeal curvature, yields a locomotor signal. prior studies have demonstrated the discriminatory power of proximal phalanges for separating suspensory species (including knuckle walkers) from pronograde quadrupedal species, but less emphasi ... | 2008 | 17787000 |
| collecting gorilla brains. | | 1892 | 17838947 |
| maintenance of imprinting and nuclear architecture in cycling cells. | dynamic gene repositioning has emerged as an additional level of epigenetic gene regulation. an early example was the report of a transient, spatial convergence (< or =2 microm) of oppositely imprinted regions ("kissing"), including the angelman syndrome/prader-willi syndrome (as/pws) locus and the beckwith-wiedemann syndrome locus in human lymphocytes during late s phase. it was argued that kissing is required for maintaining opposite imprints in cycling cells. employing 3d-fish with a bac cont ... | 2007 | 17848516 |
| interspecies hybridization on dna resequencing microarrays: efficiency of sequence recovery and accuracy of snp detection in human, ape, and codfish mitochondrial dna genomes sequenced on a human-specific mitochip. | iterative dna "resequencing" on oligonucleotide microarrays offers a high-throughput method to measure intraspecific iodiversity, one that is especially suited to snp-dense gene regions such as vertebrate mitochondrial (mtdna) genomes. however, costs of single-species design and microarray fabrication are prohibitive. a cost-effective, multi-species strategy is to hybridize experimental dnas from diverse species to a common microarray that is tiled with oligonucleotide sets from multiple, homolo ... | 2007 | 17894875 |
| new insights in insect prey choice by chimpanzees and gorillas in southeast cameroon: the role of nutritional value. | the insect diet of chimpanzees and gorillas living at the northern periphery of the dja biosphere reserve in southeast cameroon and its nutritional contribution is described. we analyzed fecal samples and recorded additional evidence of insectivory. a detailed prey species list is presented for both apes. we carried out nutritional analyses (macronutrients, macro- and micro-minerals) on 11 important and eight nonimportant, but accessible, ant and termite prey species, and estimated the average n ... | 2008 | 17902166 |
| fatty acid composition of wild anthropoid primate milks. | fatty acids in milk reflect the interplay between species-specific physiological mechanisms and maternal diet. anthropoid primates (apes, old and new world monkeys) vary in patterns of growth and development and dietary strategies. milk fatty acid profiles also are predicted to vary widely. this study investigates milk fatty acid composition of five wild anthropoids (alouatta palliata, callithrix jacchus, gorilla beringei beringei, leontopithecus rosalia, macaca sinica) to test the null hypothes ... | 2008 | 17916436 |
| prevalence and genetic diversity of simian immunodeficiency virus infection in wild-living red colobus monkeys (piliocolobus badius badius) from the taï forest, côte d'ivoire sivwrc in wild-living western red colobus monkeys. | numerous african primates are infected with simian immunodeficiency viruses (sivs). it is now well established that the clade of sivs infecting west-central african chimpanzees (pan troglodytes troglodytes) and western gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) represent the progenitors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (hiv-1), whereas hiv-2 results from different cross-species transmissions of sivsmm from sooty mangabeys (cercocebus atys atys). we present here the first molecular epidemiological ... | 2008 | 17916449 |
| mast cell alpha and beta tryptases changed rapidly during primate speciation and evolved from gamma-like transmembrane peptidases in ancestral vertebrates. | human mast cell tryptases vary strikingly in secretion, catalytic competence, and inheritance. to explore the basis of variation, we compared genes from a range of primates, including humans, great apes (chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan), old- and new-world monkeys (macaque and marmoset), and a prosimian (galago), tracking key changes. our analysis reveals that extant soluble tryptase-like proteins, including alpha- and beta-like tryptases, mastins, and implantation serine proteases, likely evolve ... | 2007 | 17947681 |
| alu recombination-mediated structural deletions in the chimpanzee genome. | with more than 1.2 million copies, alu elements are one of the most important sources of structural variation in primate genomes. here, we compare the chimpanzee and human genomes to determine the extent of alu recombination-mediated deletion (armd) in the chimpanzee genome since the divergence of the chimpanzee and human lineages ( approximately 6 million y ago). combining computational data analysis and experimental verification, we have identified 663 chimpanzee lineage-specific deletions (in ... | 2007 | 17953488 |
| comparative ocular anatomy of the western lowland gorilla. | to examine the lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) eye and determine similarities to and differences between the mountain gorilla (gorilla gorilla beringei) and the human eye. in addition, we compare our findings of g. g. gorilla to previous reports on the eye of this subspecies. | 2007 | 17970996 |
| legislating delivery system reform: a 30,000-foot view of the 800-pound gorilla. | between 1993 and today, health policy experts have reached consensus that quality assurance, cost discipline, and equitable access depend on delivering health care at times, in places, and in ways much different from those to which we are accustomed. the challenge for the next generation of health reformers is to improve coverage by improving care. this can happen only if reform legislation has a theory for success, collective social meaning, and political champions. | 2007 | 17978373 |
| reactivity of urinary albumin (microalbumin) assays with fragmented or modified albumin. | controversy exists regarding occurrence and measurement of structural variants of albumin in urine. in this study, we examined cross-reactivity of in vitro modified albumins in assays for urine albumin (microalbumin). | 2008 | 17981922 |
| nutritional quality of gorilla diets: consequences of age, sex, and season. | we tested the effects of age, sex, and season on the nutritional strategies of a group of mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei) in the bwindi impenetrable national park, uganda. through observations of food intake of individual gorillas and nutritional analyses of dietary components over different seasons and environments, we estimated nutrient intake and evaluated diet adequacy. our results suggest that the nutritional costs of reproduction and growth affect nutrient intake; growing juveniles an ... | 2008 | 17999090 |
| isolated lung perfusion, is it time to deal with the 800 pound gorilla? | | 2007 | 17999390 |
| patterns of paternity and group fission in wild multimale mountain gorilla groups. | to understand variation among social systems, it is essential to know the relative reproductive success of individuals in group-living species. particularly interesting for such studies are taxa such as mountain gorillas in which both one-male and multimale groups are common, because of the opportunity to estimate the costs and benefits to males of pursuing different reproductive strategies. we genotyped 68 individuals from two groups of multimale mountain gorilla groups in bwindi impenetrable n ... | 2008 | 18000886 |
| gorillas are a host for dientamoeba fragilis: an update on the life cycle and host distribution. | dientamoeba fragilis is a gastrointestinal protozoan that has a worldwide distribution and is emergeing as a common cause of diarrhea. as d. fragilis has a propensity to cause chronic illness with symptoms similar to irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) it is not surprising that some patients with d. fragilis are misdiagnosed as having ibs. in contrast to most other pathogenic protozoa very little is known about its life cycle, epidemiology and mode of transmission. what role animal reservoirs play in ... | 2008 | 18022187 |
| mechanical analysis of infant carrying in hominoids. | in all higher nonhuman primates, species survival depends upon safe carrying of infants clinging to body hair of adults. in this work, measurements of mechanical properties of ape hair (gibbon, orangutan, and gorilla) are presented, focusing on constraints for safe infant carrying. results of hair tensile properties are shown to be species-dependent. analysis of the mechanics of the mounting position, typical of heavier infant carrying among african apes, shows that both clinging and friction ar ... | 2008 | 18030438 |
| influence of male morphology on male mating status and behavior during interunit encounters in western lowland gorillas. | the western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) is one of the most sexually dimorphic primate species. mature males are twice the size of females and have grey fur on their backs and a fibrous, adipose crest on their heads. such traits are likely to have evolved by sexual selection, either because they confer advantages during male-male fights or because females prefer males with more dimorphic traits. we developed photogrammetric methods for distance collection of morphological data from ... | 2008 | 18044692 |
| comparative observations on the tooth root morphology of gigantopithecus blacki. | the extinct great ape gigantopithecus blacki from the middle pleistocene of china and vietnam is known only from dental and mandibular remains, and its dietary specializations remain contentious. here, for the first time, we describe the root morphology in g. blacki using computed tomography and three-dimensional image processing. we quantify the tooth root lengths and surface areas of the female g. blacki mandible no. 1 from the liucheng cave and compare it to a sample of extant great apes and ... | 2008 | 18045651 |
| three-dimensional primate molar enamel thickness. | molar enamel thickness has played an important role in the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and dietary assessments of fossil primate teeth for nearly 90 years. despite the frequency with which enamel thickness is discussed in paleoanthropological discourse, methods used to attain information about enamel thickness are destructive and record information from only a single plane of section. such semidestructive planar methods limit sample sizes and ignore dimensional data that may be culled from the enti ... | 2008 | 18045652 |
| preliminary observations on increasing root length during the eruptive phase of tooth development in modern humans and great apes. | ground sections of incisors, canines, and molars were selected that showed clear incremental markings in root dentine. the sample comprised 98 homo sapiens, 53 pan troglodytes, and a more limited combined sample of 51 gorilla and pongo sections. daily rates of root dentine formation, together with the orientation of incremental markings in roots close to the cement-dentine junction (cdj), were used to calculate root extension rates for the first 10mm of root formed beyond the buccal enamel cervi ... | 2008 | 18045653 |
| mobile dna elements in primate and human evolution. | roughly 50% of the primate genome consists of mobile, repetitive dna sequences such as alu and line1 elements. the causes and evolutionary consequences of mobile element insertion, which have received considerable attention during the past decade, are reviewed in this article. because of their unique mutational mechanisms, these elements are highly useful for answering phylogenetic questions. we demonstrate how they have been used to help resolve a number of questions in primate phylogeny, inclu ... | 2007 | 18046749 |
| quantitative three-dimensional shape analysis of the proximal hallucial metatarsal articular surface in homo, pan, gorilla, and hylobates. | multidimensional morphometrics is used to compare the proximal articular surface of the first metatarsal between homo, pan, gorilla, hylobates, and the hominin fossils a.l. 333-54 (a. afarensis), skx 5017 (p. robustus), and oh 8 (h. habilis). statistically significant differences in articular surface morphology exist between h. sapiens and the apes, and between ape groups. ape groups are characterized by greater surface depth, an obliquely curved articular surface through the dorso-lateral and m ... | 2008 | 18046775 |
| [the first ray of the hand and the foot of the primates (i). descriptive anatomy]. | dissection of the first ray and the connecting structures of the hand and the foot of simian primates, conserved by freezing or embalming and observation of 325 skeletal pieces of specimens of the museum of natural history of paris. the trapezometacarpal articulation is a saddle joint with a trapezial concavity according to its great oblique axis directed at 45 degrees with respect to a sagittal plan for the whole of the simian primates, with a trapezoidal concavity according to a great axis dir ... | 2007 | 18061502 |
| new hand bones of hadropithecus stenognathus: implications for the paleobiology of the archaeolemuridae. | a partial, associated skeleton of hadropithecus stenognathus (aha-i) was discovered in 2003 at andrahomana cave in southeastern madagascar. among the postcranial elements found were the first hand bones (right scaphoid, right hamate, left first metacarpal, and right and left fifth metacarpals) attributed to this rare subfossil lemur. these hand bones were compared to those of extant strepsirrhines and catarrhines in order to infer the positional adaptations of hadropithecus, and they were compar ... | 2008 | 18068213 |
| the role of pleistocene refugia and rivers in shaping gorilla genetic diversity in central africa. | the role of pleistocene forest refugia and rivers in the evolutionary diversification of tropical biota has been the subject of considerable debate. a range-wide analysis of gorilla mitochondrial and nuclear variation was used to test the potential role of both refugia and rivers in shaping genetic diversity in current populations. results reveal strong patterns of regional differentiation that are consistent with refugial hypotheses for central africa. four major mitochondrial haplogroups are e ... | 2007 | 18077351 |
| comparing ape densities and habitats in northern congo: surveys of sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees in the odzala and ndoki regions. | the conservation status of western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees in western equatorial africa remains largely speculative because many remote areas have never been surveyed and the impact of emergent diseases in the region has not been well documented. in this study, we compared ape densities and habitats in the lokoué study area in odzala national park and the goualougo triangle in nouabalé-ndoki national park in northern republic of congo. both of these sites have long been consider ... | 2008 | 18176937 |
| tubes, tables and traps: great apes solve two functionally equivalent trap tasks but show no evidence of transfer across tasks. | previous studies on tool using have shown that presenting subjects with certain modifications in the experimental setup can substantially improve their performance. however, procedural modifications (e.g. trap table task) may not only remove task constraints but also simplify the problem conceptually. the goal of this study was to design a variation of the trap-table that was functionally equivalent to the trap-tube task. in this new task, the subjects had to decide where to insert the tool and ... | 2008 | 18183433 |
| the mastodon mitochondrial genome: a mammoth accomplishment. | the mitochondrial genome of an american mastodon was recently sequenced and used to root a phylogenetic analysis that included full mitochondrial genome sequences from woolly mammoths and the two living elephant genera. the study definitively established that mammoth and asian elephant mitochondrial dna lineages are more closely related than either is to african elephants. however, it also suggests that a complex evolutionary picture could ultimately emerge and points to similarities between the ... | 2008 | 18192067 |
| the evolutionary role of modularity and integration in the hominoid cranium. | patterns of morphological integration and modularity among shape features emerge from genetic and developmental factors with varying pleiotropic effects. factors or processes affecting morphology only locally may respond to selection more easily than common factors that may lead to deleterious side effects and hence are expected to be more conserved. we briefly review evidence for such global factors in primate cranial development as well as for local factors constrained to either the face or th ... | 2008 | 18194472 |
| molecular evolution of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 5a gene in primates. | many electron transport chain (etc) genes show accelerated rates of nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions in anthropoid primate lineages, yet in non-anthropoid lineages the etc proteins are typically highly conserved. here, we test the hypothesis that cox5a, the etc gene that encodes cytochrome c oxidase subunit 5a, shows a pattern of anthropoid-specific adaptive evolution, and investigate the distribution of this protein in catarrhine brains. | 2008 | 18197981 |
| manipulating decay time for efficient large-mammal density estimation: gorillas and dung height. | large-mammal surveys often rely on indirect signs such as dung or nests. sign density is usually translated into animal density using sign production and decay rates. in principle, such auxiliary variable estimates should be made in a spatially unbiased manner. however, traditional decay rate estimation methods entail following many signs from production to disappearance, which, in large study areas, requires extensive travel effort. consequently, decay rate estimates have tended to be made inst ... | 2007 | 18213978 |
| task constraints mask great apes' ability to solve the trap-table task. | researchers have investigated animals' causal knowledge with a task requiring subjects to use a tool to bring a reward within reach whilst avoiding a trap. previous studies have suggested limitations in the ability of several species to avoid traps in tubes or tables. however, certain features may have inflated task difficulty. we tested 20 chimpanzees (pan troglodytes), 7 orangutans (pongo pygmaeus), 5 bonobos (pan paniscus), and 5 gorillas (gorilla gorilla) in the trap-table--a task in which s ... | 2008 | 18248114 |
| hominoid chromosomal rearrangements on 17q map to complex regions of segmental duplication. | chromosomal rearrangements, such as translocations and inversions, are recurrent phenomena during evolution, and both of them are involved in reproductive isolation and speciation. to better understand the molecular basis of chromosome rearrangements and their part in karyotype evolution, we have investigated the history of human chromosome 17 by comparative fluorescence in situ hybridization (fish) and sequence analysis. | 2008 | 18257913 |
| the behavior of two captive specimens of the lowland gorilla, gorilla gorilla gorilla (savage & wyman). | this report describes the behavior of two pre-adolescent lowland gorillas in the new york zoological park during the summer of 1948. oka, then an eight-year-old female, and makoko, a ten-year-old male, were observed in their regular living cages when alone and when placed together. a check-list was prepared and regular half-hour periods of observation were systematically made. significant behavioral items were compared for the sessions when the animals were alone and when they were together. com ... | 1949 | 18268801 |
| molecular mechanisms of chromosomal rearrangement during primate evolution. | breakpoint analysis of the large chromosomal rearrangements which have occurred during primate evolution promises to yield new insights into the underlying mechanisms of mutagenesis. comparison of these evolutionary breakpoints with those that are disease-associated in humans, and which occur during either meiotic or mitotic cell division, should help to identify basic mechanistic similarities as well as differences. it has recently become clear that segmental duplications (sds) have had a very ... | 2008 | 18293104 |
| chimerism, point mutation, and truncation dramatically transformed mast cell delta-tryptases during primate evolution. | tryptases are serine peptidases stored in mast cell granules. rodents express 2 soluble tryptases, mast cell proteases (mcps) 6 and 7. human alpha- and beta-tryptases are orthologs of mcp-6. however, much of the ancestral mcp-7 ortholog was replaced by parts of other tryptases, creating chimeric delta-tryptase. human delta-tryptase's limited activity is hypothesized to be due to truncation and processing mutations. | 2008 | 18325577 |
| an experimental study of nettle feeding in captive gorillas. | mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei) in karisoke, rwanda, feed on the stinging nettle laportea alatipes by means of elaborate processing skills. byrne [e.g. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, series b, biological sciences 358:529-536, 2003] has claimed that individuals acquire these skills by means of the so-called program-level imitation, in which the overall sequence of problem-solving steps (not the precise actions) is reproduced. in this study we present west ... | 2008 | 18330896 |
| behavioural responses to photographs by pictorially naïve baboons (papio anubis), gorillas (gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzees (pan troglodytes). | this study assessed how pictorially naïve nonhuman primates understand pictures. fifty-five baboons with no prior exposure to pictures were trained to grasp a slice of banana presented against a pebble in a two alternative forced choice task. post-training testing involved three stimulus pairs: (1) real banana slice vs. its picture, (2) the banana picture vs. a real pebble and (3) banana picture vs. a pebble picture which were presented twice. preliminary data were also collected on naïve gorill ... | 2008 | 18342457 |
| ectocranial suture closure in pan troglodytes and gorilla gorilla: pattern and phylogeny. | the order in which ectocranial sutures undergo fusion displays species-specific variation among primates. however, the precise relationship between suture closure and phylogenetic affinities is poorly understood. in this study, we used guttman scaling to determine if the modal progression of suture closure differs among homo sapiens, pan troglodytes, and gorilla gorilla. because dna sequence homologies strongly suggest that p. troglodytes and homo sapiens share a more recent common ancestor than ... | 2008 | 18350580 |
| evolution of the daz gene and the azfc region on primate y chromosomes. | the azoospermia factor c (azfc) region of the human y chromosome is a unique product of segmental duplication. it consists almost entirely of very long amplicons, represented by different colors, and is frequently deleted in subfertile men. most of the azfc amplicons have high sequence similarity with autosomal segments, indicating recent duplication and transposition to the y chromosome. the deleted in azoospermia (daz) gene within the red-amplicon arose from an ancestral autosomal daz-like (da ... | 2008 | 18366765 |
| restriction of foamy viruses by primate trim5alpha. | foamy viruses (fvs) are unconventional retroviruses with a replication strategy that is significantly different from orthoretroviruses and bears some homology to that of hepadnaviruses. although some cellular proteins, such as apobec3, have been reported to block fvs, no restriction by trim5alpha has been described to date. the sensitivity of three fv isolates of human-chimpanzee or prototypic (pfv), macaque (sfvmac), and feline (ffv) origin to a variety of primate trim5alphas was therefore test ... | 2008 | 18367529 |
| the evolutionary history of the hominin hand since the last common ancestor of pan and homo. | molecular evidence indicates that the last common ancestor of the genus pan and the hominin clade existed between 8 and 4 million years ago (ma). the current fossil record indicates the pan-homo last common ancestor existed at least 5 ma and most likely between 6 and 7 ma. together, the molecular and fossil evidence has important consequences for interpreting the evolutionary history of the hand within the tribe hominini (hominins). firstly, parsimony supports the hypothesis that the hand of the ... | 2008 | 18380869 |
| fiber-bound nitrogen in gorilla diets: implications for estimating dietary protein intake of primates. | protein is essential for living organisms, but digestibility of crude protein is poorly understood and difficult to predict. nitrogen is used to estimate protein content because nitrogen is a component of the amino acids that comprise protein, but a substantial portion of the nitrogen in plants may be bound to fiber in an indigestible form. to estimate the amount of crude protein that is unavailable in the diets of mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei) in bwindi impenetrable national park, uganda ... | 2008 | 18404679 |
| fatal ulcerative colitis in a western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | a captive western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) presented with watery diarrhoea that progressed to become profuse and haemorrhagic. faecal analyses revealed balantidium (b.) coli trophozoites and salmonella-like bacteria. despite treatment the gorilla died on the 5th day after onset of symptoms. post-mortem examination revealed a severe erosive-ulcerative superficial and deep colitis. histological examination of post-mortem samples of the colon showed plentiful b. coli invading into ... | 2008 | 18466283 |
| position of chromosomes 18, 19, 21 and 22 in 3d-preserved interphase nuclei of human and gorilla and white hand gibbon. | abstract: | 2008 | 18471270 |
| articular morphology of the proximal ulna in extant and fossil hominoids and hominins. | extant hominoids share similar elbow joint morphology, which is believed to be an adaptation for elbow stability through a wide range of pronation-supination and flexion-extension postures. mild variations in elbow joint morphology reported among extant hominoids are often qualitative, where orangutans are described as having keeled joints, and humans and gorillas as having flatter joints. although these differences in keeling are often linked to variation in upper limb use or loading, they have ... | 2008 | 18472143 |
| [complete sequence determination and phylogenetic analysis of fkn among seven higher primates including homonids and old world monkeys]. | to obtain full-length fkn nucleotide sequences of homonids including human, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan and gibbon, and old world monkeys including macaque and leaf monkey and make phylogenetic analysis, three exons of fkn were amplified by degenerated pcr using obtained peripheral blood cells dna as template which was extracted from homonids and old world monkeys. after extracting and purifying from agarose gels, pcr products were sequenced and then spliced by using bioedit. all the fkn sequ ... | 2008 | 18487149 |
| how the great apes (pan troglodytes, pongo pygmaeus, pan paniscus, gorilla gorilla) perform on the reversed reward contingency task ii: transfer to new quantities, long-term retention, and the impact of quantity ratios. | we tested 6 chimpanzees (pan troglodytes), 3 orangutans (pongo pygmaeus), 4 bonobos (pan paniscus), and 2 gorillas (gorilla gorilla) in the reversed reward contingency task. individuals were presented with pairs of quantities ranging between 0 and 6 food items. prior to testing, some experienced apes had solved this task using 2 quantities while others were totally naïve. experienced apes transferred their ability to multiple-novel pairs after 6 to 19 months had elapsed since their initial testi ... | 2008 | 18489236 |
| color preferences in gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzees (pan troglodytes). | color plays an important biological role in the lives of many animals, with some species exhibiting preferences for certain colors over others. this study explored the color preferences of two species of ape, which, like humans, possess trichromatic color vision. six western lowland gorillas, and six chimpanzees, housed in belfast zoological gardens, were exposed to three stimuli (cloths, boxes, sheets of acetate) in red, blue, and green. six stimuli of the same nature, in each of the three colo ... | 2008 | 18489237 |
| great apes' (pan troglodytes, pan paniscus, gorilla gorilla, pongo pygmaeus) understanding of tool functional properties after limited experience. | primates' understanding of tool functionality has been investigated extensively using a paradigm in which subjects are presented with a tool that they must use to obtain an out-of-reach reward. after being given experience on an initial problem, monkeys can transfer their skill to tools of different shapes while ignoring irrelevant tool changes (e.g., color). in contrast, monkeys without initial training perform poorly on the same tasks. compared to most monkeys, great apes show a clear propensi ... | 2008 | 18489238 |
| mountain gorilla research: the risk of disease transmission relative to the benefit from the perspective of ecosystem health. | | 2008 | 18506694 |
| effects of habitat fragmentation, population size and demographic history on genetic diversity: the cross river gorilla in a comparative context. | in small and fragmented populations, genetic diversity may be reduced owing to increased levels of drift and inbreeding. this reduced diversity is often associated with decreased fitness and a higher threat of extinction. however, it is difficult to determine when a population has low diversity except in a comparative context. we assessed genetic variability in the critically endangered cross river gorilla (gorilla gorilla diehli), a small and fragmented population, using 11 autosomal microsatel ... | 2008 | 18521886 |
| molecular characterization of the herv-w env gene in humans and primates: expression, fish, phylogeny, and evolution. | we characterized the human endogenous retrovirus (herv-w) family in humans and primates. in silico expression data indicated that 22 complete herv-w families from human chromosomes 1-3, 5-8, 10-12, 15, 19, and x are randomly expressed in various tissues. quantitative real-time rt-pcr analysis of the herv-w env gene derived from human chromosome 7q21.2 indicated predominant expression in the human placenta. several copies of repeat sequences (sine, line, ltr, simple repeat) were detected within t ... | 2008 | 18525236 |
| hominoid seminal protein evolution and ancestral mating behavior. | hominoid mating systems show extensive variation among species. the degree of sexual dimorphism in body size and canine size varies among primates in accordance with their mating system, as does the testes size and the consistency of ejaculated semen, in response to differing levels of sperm competition. to investigate patterns of evolution at hominoid seminal proteins and to make inferences regarding the mating systems of extinct taxa, we sequenced the entire coding region of the prostate-speci ... | 2008 | 18561295 |
| food preferences of wild mountain gorillas. | determining the nutritional and phenolic basis of food preference is important for understanding the nutritional requirements of animals. preference is a measure of which foods would be consumed by an animal if there was no variation in availability among food items. from september 2004 to august 2005, we measured the food preferences of four wild mountain gorilla groups that consume foliage and fruit in bwindi impenetrable national park, uganda, to determine what nutrients and phenols are prefe ... | 2008 | 18567010 |
| neuropathologic findings in an aged albino gorilla. | pallido-nigral spheroids associated with iron deposition have been observed in some aged clinically normal nonhuman primates. in humans, similar findings are observed in neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation diseases, which, in some cases, show associated mutations in pantothenate kinase 2 gene (pank2). here we present an aged gorilla, 40 years old, suffering during the last 2 years of life from progressive tetraparesis, nystagmus, and dyskinesia of the arms, hands, and neck, with accom ... | 2008 | 18587101 |
| mitogenomic relationships of placental mammals and molecular estimates of their divergences. | molecular analyses of the relationships of placental mammals have shown a progressive congruence between mitogenomic and nuclear phylogenies. some inconsistencies have nevertheless persisted, notably with respect to basal divergences. the current study has aimed to extend the representation of groups, whose position in the placental tree has been difficult to establish in mitogenomic studies. both ml (maximum likelihood) and bayesian analyses identified four basal monophyletic groups, afroplacen ... | 2008 | 18590805 |
| [genetic diversity and phylogeographic distribution of siv: how to understand the origin of hiv]. | emergence of human immunodeficiency viruses hiv-1 and hiv-2 results from interspecies transmission from simian viruses siv. sivcpzptt infecting chimpanzees, and from which the hiv-1 (subgroups m and n) is derived is still found in the pan troglodytes troglodytes population of south cameroon chimpanzees. the ancestor of hiv-1 group o, is found in the gorilla residing in western africa, but chimpanzees are in fact the initial reservoir of the siv viruses sivgor, and it is still unclear whether the ... | 2008 | 18601880 |
| estimation of hominoid ancestral population sizes under bayesian coalescent models incorporating mutation rate variation and sequencing errors. | estimation of population parameters for the common ancestors of humans and the great apes is important in understanding our evolutionary history. in particular, inference of population size for the human-chimpanzee common ancestor may shed light on the process by which the 2 species separated and on whether the human population experienced a severe size reduction in its early evolutionary history. in this study, the bayesian method of ancestral inference of rannala and yang (2003. bayes estimati ... | 2008 | 18603620 |
| a comparative quantitative analysis of cytoarchitecture and minicolumnar organization in broca's area in humans and great apes. | broca's area was identified in the inferior frontal gyrus of chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, and orangutan brains through direct cytoarchitectonic comparison with human brains. across species, broca's area comprises brodmann's areas 44 and 45. we found that these areas exhibited similar cytoarchitectonic characteristics in all species examined. we analyzed the minicolumnar organization of cells in layer iii of broca's area in 11 human and 9 great ape specimens. a semiautomated method was used to an ... | 2008 | 18612968 |
| peaceful post-conflict interactions between aggressors and bystanders in captive lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). | we observed a colony of lowland gorillas in order to assess the occurrence of peaceful post-conflict interactions between aggressors and bystanders (ppiab). we compared the dynamics of ppiab with those of peaceful post-conflict interactions between victims and bystanders (ppivb), which are directed toward victims. we confirmed the occurrence of ppiab (mean triadic contact tendency: 41.7%+/-16.2% sem) at frequencies comparable to ppivb. immature gorillas were responsible for most ppiab. ppiab occ ... | 2008 | 18615459 |
| assessing mandibular shape variation within gigantopithecus using a geometric morphometric approach. | this study provides a survey of mandibular shape in a sample of extant hominoids (pan, gorilla, pongo, and hylobates), as well as extinct asian and eurasian taxa (ouranopithecus, sivapithecus, and gigantopithecus) in order to compare overall shape similarity. results presented call into question differences in mandible shape recently used to distinguish gigantopithecus giganteus from gigantopithecus blacki and to justify resurrecting a different generic designation, "indopithecus," for the forme ... | 2008 | 18615565 |
| food material properties and mandibular load resistance abilities in large-bodied hominoids. | numerous comparative studies have sought to demonstrate a functional link between feeding behavior, diet, and mandibular form in primates. in lieu of data on the material properties of foods ingested and masticated, many investigators have relied on qualitative dietary classifications such as "folivore" or "frugivore." here we provide the first analysis of the relationship between jaw form, dietary profiles, and food material properties in large-bodied hominoids. we employed ratios of area momen ... | 2008 | 18656244 |
| tentative identification of the species of balantidium from ostriches (struthio camelus) as balantidium coli-like by analysis of polymorphic dna. | the characteristics of balantidium from ostriches (struthio camelus) are similar to those of balantidium coli; however, the species balantidium struthionis was proposed on the basis of the host species (ostriches) and the shape of the macronucleus (with a deep depression in one side). in the present work, we have performed morphological and genetic comparisons between isolates of balantidium from ostriches and b. coli from pigs to determine the specific status of b. struthionis. the morphologica ... | 2008 | 18675516 |
| raymond dart as a pioneering primatologist. | raymond dart is best known today for his groundbreaking research in palaeoanthropology. it is often forgotten, however, that dart was a scientist of many interests, who made significant contributions to various disciplines. one of these is the study of living non-human primates. dart became aware of the importance of primate studies and their relevance for research in other disciplines early in his career. in the late 1920s dart established a colony of captive baboons in the anatomy department, ... | 2008 | 18675977 |
| beyond dna: rna editing and steps toward alu exonization in primates. | the exaptation of transposed elements into protein-coding domains by a process called exonization is one important evolutionary pathway for generating novel variant functions of gene products. adenosine-to-inosine (a-to-i) modification is a recently discovered, rna-editing-mediated mechanism that contributes to the exonization of previously unprocessed mrna introns. in the human nuclear prelamin a recognition factor gene transcript, the alternatively spliced exon 8 results from an a-to-i editing ... | 2008 | 18680752 |
| subdivision in an ancestral species creates asymmetry in gene trees. | we consider gene trees in three species for which the species tree is known. we show that population subdivision in ancestral species can lead to asymmetry in the frequencies of the two gene trees not concordant with the species tree and, if subdivision is extreme, cause the one of the nonconcordant gene trees to be more probable than the concordant gene tree. although published data for the human-chimp-gorilla clade and for three species of drosophila show asymmetry consistent with our model, s ... | 2008 | 18689871 |
| a quantitative method for the evaluation of three-dimensional structure of temporal bone pneumatization. | temporal bone pneumatization has been included in lists of characters used in phylogenetic analyses of human evolution. while studies suggest that the extent of pneumatization has decreased over the course of human evolution, little is known about the processes underlying these changes or their significance. in short, reasons for the observed reduction and the potential reorganization within pneumatized spaces are unknown. technological limitations have limited previous analyses of pneumatizatio ... | 2008 | 18715622 |
| probe-specific proportion task repetition effects on switching costs. | in two experiments, participants were presented with successive presentations of animal names (e.g., gorilla, whale)--a prime display followed by a probe display. in response to each display, participants judged either the typical habitat or the relative size of those animals, repeating the same task in response to both displays on half of the experimental trials and switching from one task to the other on the other half of trials. our results demonstrate that switch costs can be reduced when ei ... | 2008 | 18717381 |
| gastrointestinal bacterial transmission among humans, mountain gorillas, and livestock in bwindi impenetrable national park, uganda. | habitat overlap can increase the risks of anthroponotic and zoonotic pathogen transmission between humans, livestock, and wild apes. we collected escherichia coli bacteria from humans, livestock, and mountain gorillas (gorilla gorilla beringei) in bwindi impenetrable national park, uganda, from may to august 2005 to examine whether habitat overlap influences rates and patterns of pathogen transmission between humans and apes and whether livestock might facilitate transmission. we genotyped 496 e ... | 2008 | 18717695 |
| evolution of a complex minisatellite dna sequence. | minisatellites are tandem repeats of short dna units widely distributed in genomes. however, the information on their dynamics in a phylogenetic context is very limited. here we have studied the organization of the msh43 locus in several species of primates and from these data we have reconstructed the evolutionary history of this complex minisatellite. overall, with the exception of gibbon, msh43 has an organization that is asymmetric, since the distribution of repeats is distinct between the 5 ... | 2008 | 18723095 |
| evolutionary modifications of human milk composition: evidence from long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid composition of anthropoid milks. | brain growth in mammals is associated with increased accretion of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (lcpufa) in brain phospholipids. the period of maximum accumulation is during the brain growth spurt. humans have a perinatal brain growth spurt, selectively accumulating docosahexaenoic acid (dha) and other lcpufa from the third trimester through the second year of life. the emphasis on rapid postnatal brain growth and lcpufa transfer during lactation has led to the suggestion that human mil ... | 2008 | 18809203 |
| chromosomal evolution of the pkd1 gene family in primates. | the autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (adpkd) is mostly caused by mutations in the pkd1 (polycystic kidney disease 1) gene located in 16p13.3. moreover, there are six pseudogenes of pkd1 that are located proximal to the master gene in 16p13.1. in contrast, no pseudogene could be detected in the mouse genome, only a single copy gene on chromosome 17. the question arises how the human situation originated phylogenetically. to address this question we applied comparative fish-mapping of ... | 2008 | 18822117 |
| host-parasite ecology of the helminths in mountain gorillas. | to understand patterns of intestinal parasitism in healthy, undisturbed endangered mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei), we regularly collected fecal samples from a group of 14 wild gorillas residing in bwindi impenetrable national park (binp), uganda, for about 1 yr. the objectives of the study were to collect baseline data in order to document the helminth parasites infecting this group of gorillas and to examine the effects of season and host age-sex class on patterns of parasite infection. i ... | 2008 | 18837578 |
| gorillas' (gorilla gorilla) use of experimenter-given manual and facial cues in an object-choice task. | several experiments have been performed to examine the great apes' use of experimenter-given manual and visual cues in object-choice tasks. considering their use of referential gestures in gaze-following paradigms, great apes perform surprisingly unsuccessfully in object-choice tasks. however, the large majority of object-choice experiments have been conducted with chimpanzees (pan troglodytes) with very few experiments including other great ape species, making it difficult to generalize about t ... | 2009 | 18925419 |
| condensed tannins in the diets of primates: a matter of methods? | to understand the ways in which condensed tannins (ct) affect primate diet selection and nutritional status, correct measurements are essential. in the majority of studies of the ct contents of primate foods, a tannin source such as "quebracho" is used to standardize ct assays, but the ct in quebracho tannin may not be similar to those in the plants of interest. we investigated how the choice of standard to calibrate ct assays affects the estimation of ct in the diets of mountain gorillas (goril ... | 2009 | 18925644 |
| comparative sequence analysis of primate subtelomeres originating from a chromosome fission event. | subtelomeres are concentrations of interchromosomal segmental duplications capped by telomeric repeats at the ends of chromosomes. the nature of the segments shared by different sets of human subtelomeres reflects their high rate of recent interchromosomal exchange. here, we characterize the rearrangements incurred by the 15q subtelomere after it arose from a chromosome fission event in the common ancestor of great apes. we used fish, sequencing of genomic clones, and pcr to map the breakpoint o ... | 2009 | 18952852 |
| the star*d trial: the 300 lb gorilla is in the room, but does it block all the light? | | 2008 | 18952951 |
| netmhcpan, a method for mhc class i binding prediction beyond humans. | binding of peptides to major histocompatibility complex (mhc) molecules is the single most selective step in the recognition of pathogens by the cellular immune system. the human mhc genomic region (called hla) is extremely polymorphic comprising several thousand alleles, each encoding a distinct mhc molecule. the potentially unique specificity of the majority of hla alleles that have been identified to date remains uncharacterized. likewise, only a limited number of chimpanzee and rhesus macaqu ... | 2009 | 19002680 |
| physical maturation, life-history classes and age estimates of free-ranging western gorillas--insights from mbeli bai, republic of congo. | physical maturation and life-history parameters are seen as evolutionary adaptations to different ecological and social conditions. comparison of life-history patterns of closely related species living in diverse environments helps to evaluate the validity of these assumptions but empirical data are lacking. the two gorilla species exhibit substantial differences in their environment, which allows investigation into the role of increased frugivory in shaping western gorilla life histories. we pr ... | 2009 | 19003901 |
| the shape of the early hominin proximal femur. | postcranial skeletal variation among plio-pleistocene hominins has implications for taxonomy and locomotor adaptation. although sample size constraints make interspecific comparisons difficult, postcranial differences between australopithecus afarensis and australopithecus africanus have been reported (mchenry and berger: j hum evol 35 1998 1-22; richmond et al.: j hum evol 43 [2002] 529-548; green et al.: j hum evol 52 2007 187-200). additional evidence indicates that the early members of the g ... | 2009 | 19012328 |