Quickie on Orangutan Bipedalism

Primatology.net has a sister site, if you don't know already, and that's Anthropology.net. This evening I put up a post there that may interest any one keen to primate locomotion and/or human evolution. The post is specifically on orangutan locomotion, specifically on how some researchers have observed a set of Sumatran Orangutans exhibit bipedal tendencies....

Palm Oil Industry and the displacement of Orangutans

Before I jump into this article, I want to thank to Dave, one of our faithful visitors and commenters, who took the time to send us this Reuters news article on the current state of orangutan conservation. You should know already that orangutans are severely endangered, their populations are on the verge of genetic collapse,...

U.S. stops breeding chimps for future research

Remember when I talked about the current state of using chimpanzee's in biomedical research? If not, let me refresh your memory. About five months ago, I over-viewed the reasons as to why the United States is not using chimps as a model organism in biomedical research. At the core of it all, the issue for...

Changing our site name to Primatology.net

As you may have already noticed, I've decided to change our site's name. I've done so because I own run Anthropology.net and want to match this site to that. Furthermore, Primatology.org is not so much an organization, as denoted by old the domain name. If anything we are a network of people interested in primatologists,...

Using Macaques to treat Parkinson’s Disease

I consider Pakinson's a very devastating neurodegenerative disease because the affected individuals are fully aware of their degeneration. Unlike Alzheimer's, where individuals become jaded as the disease progresses, individuals with Parkinson's are very conscious of what's happening or actually what's not functioning correctly -- and they can't do a thing about it! So some new findings...

Brainstorming the Future of Primate Brain Evolution Research

The following post is a departure from my usual reporting on an interesting primate related tidbit of research. I'll be posting about how I have thought about how to study primate brain evolution research. These are just ideas I have brainstormed. It is very probable that people are doing this out in their respective labs...

Digital Morphology Database and Primatology

For you osteology buffs out there, I want to let you know about the Digital Morphology database, if you don't already know about it. I actually didn't know about it myself, until I read about an extinct platyrrhine, Tremacebus harringtoni, from Afarensis' 'know your primate' periodical. The Digital Morphology (DigiMorph) database currently has about 400...

Chimpanzee Sit-Ups

From time to time I like to put up a funny primate related piece of media to break the monotony that sometimes is 'hardcore' science. Considering, we just had a row of such material, here's a video that you may enjoy. I for one got a good chuckle out of it. Though sometimes the animals...

Sexual selection and its influence on primates brains

Since primate brains and sexual dimorphism are topics that are still fresh on our minds after this morning's post, I figured I should let you know about a new publication that came out of the open access journal BMC Biology on the differences between male and female primate brain structures and how they developed. It...

Fossil primate Aegyptopithecus zeuxis sheds new light on primate brain evolution

From the paleoprimatology department comes news that a second intact cranium of Aegyptopithecus zeuxis has been found and is, '"extraordinarily unusual," ...mainly because it's complete and uncrushed.' This fossil cranium is important because tells us a lot about what was going on with primate brain evolution many million years ago. The fossil cranium was found...