![]() This grouping includes a dominant male, known as a silverback, several females, and their offspring. Mountain gorillas typically live in small groups of about 10 individuals. Unlike many other species of primates, both males and females leave their natal groups and migrate to other social groupings. Males are more than twice as large as females with weights of up to 200 kg (Fleagle, 1999). Females typically weight between 70 kg and 90 kg. In addition, gorillas exhibit one of the highest degrees of sexual dimorphism among primates. Notably, gorillas are the largest extant species of primate. Unlike the mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas include a substantial portion of fruit in their diet (Fleagle, 1999). While lowland gorillas are terrestrial, individuals frequently engage in arboreal behaviors and often eat and sleep in trees. Mountain gorillas are almost entirely terrestrial and subsist mostly on leaves. These include the western lowland gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla, and the mountain gorilla. Three subspecies of gorillas are recognized according to their geographic distribution. Gorillas are distributed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and inhabit tropical forest habitats. Therefore, although the last common ancestor between humans and African apes is believed to have existed between five and six million years ago, there is no consensus as to what this common ancestor would have looked like (Fleagle, 1999 Hartwig, 2002). Additionally, no fossil specimens from more recent epochs exhibit derived traits that can be linked to the African apes. The Miocene apes do not have derived morphology that is shared with the African apes and therefore none of the Miocene specimens can be categorized as ancestral to the African ape lineage. The fossil record indicates that African homonoids arrived in Europe during the Miocene between 16 and 17 million years ago, followed by a diversification of apes across Europe and Western Asia (Hartwig, 2002). Additionally, fossil apes have been discovered throughout Europe, distributed between the French and Spanish Pyrenees to the Republic of Georgia. Although the best record of proconsulids is found in Africa, specimens have also been found in Asia, suggesting that proconsulids migrated to Asia in the early Miocene (Fleagle 1999). The first radiation of fossil apes, the proconsulids, occurred in Africa from the late Oligocene to the middle Miocene. Finally, unlike all other primates, apes lack a tail (Fleagle, 1999).Īlthough there are only five extant ape genera, several ape genera have been identified in the fossil record. ![]() Apes also have a broad, short thorax, as opposed to the long, narrow thorax found in monkeys. These anatomical features enable apes to have a wide range of overhead movement and aid in suspensory locomotion. In addition to having long forelimbs, apes have a dorsally positioned scapula and globular humeral head. Relatively long forelimbs are attributed to the highly suspensory behavior of all non-human apes. First, apes typically have longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, the only exception to this trend being humans. Apes are anatomically distinct from monkeys in several ways. ![]() Hominoidea includes gibbons and siamangs (Hylobatidae), commonly referred to as the lesser apes, and orangutans (Ponginae), gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans (Homininae), often referred to as the great apes (Hartwig, 2002). Gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla) are apes and belong to Hominoidea. ![]()
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