Bonobo Research Paper

Gorillas are the largest group of primates and although they are known as being bipedal, similar to humans and other primates, they often use knuckle walking to move around. On observation, they have seems to have a more robust front appearance than their hind legs and behind. Their cranium is taller than other primates and lower mandible more protruding than their snout. They also have human-like ears that are parallel to their eyes and are small in size. They have

According to my observation, even though Chimpanzee, and Gorilla are similar, they differ in many other ways when we go deeper in physical, and behavioral traits. However, both species also share the majority part of their DNA with Humans. Based on some reliable researches, some scientists realized that humans did not come from apes but instead shared common ancestors. As a matter of fact, humans and Primates are different, but share most of their genome, explaining why we found some similar patterns of behavior among humans, and

There are many examples of iconic animals that we take for granted when it comes to thoughts of sharing our earth with them in the far future, but it is becoming more evident throughout the passing of time that this will no longer be true with current conditions. When it comes to animals becoming extinct not many people think that many recognized animals, besides the most talked about ones like Polar bears and Giant pandas, are at risk. One of these incredibly recognized endangered animals is the Orangutan. One of the most distinguished of the great apes, both of the subspecies of Orangutan are endangered; The Bornean and the Sumatran, with the Sumatran being declared as a critical species.

I observed a type of Ape known as the Western Lowland Gorilla. The scientific name for a Gorilla is the Gorilla gorilla. Gorillas are the largest of all living primates and at native to west central Africa. Gorillas exhibit sexual dimorphism within their species because males are very obviously much larger than females. The size of the gorillas came across very intimating and gave me an off impression of what this specie was actually going to be like. While observing the gorillas I noticed that these creatures are very slow, lethargic primates. Gorillas move quadrupedally by putting weight down on their arms and knuckles as they walk. They have hands and opposable thumbs, like humans, and are able to grasp things with a better grip. When Gorillas need to reach above themselves such as for leaves or branches they are able to stand on both legs while reaching. While resting Gorillas sit on their bottoms, legs to the side in a similar position that humans do. When resting I noticed that sometimes Gorillas like to take advantage of the moment by self grooming, using their hands. Gorillas usually have an herbivore diet but eat occasional insects. Due to their large body structure it is harder for them move around quickly so they do not need to eat foods that contain as much nutrients and proteins as smaller,

The three sites where hunting has been observed in bonobo populations are Wamba, Lamaki and Lui Kotale. Chimpanzees have been observed more often in hunting prey, and the few cases of hunting in bonobos could be attributed to a lower level of violence found in bonobo populations. At the site of Lui Kotale, in the Salonga national Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo fresh bonobo feces was analyzed on a regular basis to see what the bonobo diet consisted of. The samples are first broken down to find the bigger undigested material, ten run through mesh to pull out anything else.

After their first kids, they have another breed every 5-6 years. Female Bonobos are at the top of the totem pole when it comes to every clan. In every clan, there is a “chief” elected by the age that they are. When male Bonobos compete for a mate, they stare face to face, while “fencing with their scrotums. Most clans consist of around 100-150 Bonobos.

The chimpanzee became its own species when it separated from bonobos about 2 to 3 million years ago (Mitchell, and Gonder). According to the article “Chimps And Bonobos”, this most likely happened because of allopatric speciation which is the separation of a species through physical forces like mountains or rivers that isolate the two groups. The physical force that separated the two species was most likely Zaire River which is also called the Congo River in Sub-Sahara Africa. About 2 million years ago there was a drought south of the river and drove the gorillas that were living the area north. Without an apex predator in the area the common ancestor of the two animals crossed the river and became isolated from their relative the bonobo.

The process of determining the validity of the three unknown specimens as new primate species is to generate a phylogenetic tree to represent the evolutionary relationships among the three unknown Rwanda species and other closely related species. These closely related species were taken from the diverse range of sequences given of eight other known primates using 12S ribosomal RNA.

Western lowland gorillas are smaller and lighter than the other gorilla subspecies, with short hair, a wider skull and a more outstanding brow ridge. The ears also appear small in relation to the head. There is also a difference between the sexes, with females being almost half the size of silverbacks. One of the coolest things in my opinion is that they walk on all four legs but use the arms and there balance. But they can also

New calculations to establish when the gorilla, chimpanzee and human lineages diverged are now possible. By combining data on DNA-sequence differences between species with estimates of DNA-mutation rates operative millions of years ago, Scally and colleagues calculate the human-chimpanzee and (human+chimpanzee)-gorilla branch points to be 3.7 million and 5.95 million years ago, respectively. These dates conflict with some fossil evidence, but more complex calculations that allow for mutation rates that change with time--a reasonable possibility owing to changes in the average length of generations and other parameters--may resolve this problem.

The Cercopithecus aethiops, otherwise known as the vervet monkey is a species that has inhabited East African woodland savanna trees for thousands of years and is considered to be an old world monkey. The twenty-two inch long twelve pound omnivore primarily eat fruits and leaves, but in some cases will eat small mammals and birds and rarely drink water.

Papio hamadryas and Theropithecus gelada are commonly referred to as hamadryas baboons and gelada baboons. These two species are both classified as Old World monkeys, meaning they share a common ancestor dating back 20 million years ago in Africa. Having a common lineage usually indicate close relatedness in terms of phylogeny. This is seen with hamadryas and geladas, they fall under the same order of classification, which is Primates, down to the same subfamily, known as cercopithecidae. Although having a common lineage allows them to share certain characteristics and behaviors, these two species of baboons still encompass divergent qualities.

They are the smallest of the gorilla subspecies, with the females only reaching about half the size of the silverback males. Still, they can grow up to be between 4 and 5.5 feet tall standing up with a weight of up to 440 pounds. Their fur coat is more reddish brown than black and made up off shorter hairs. All males acquire a silver-gray color across the back

A long held and widely spread misconception is modern humans descended from apes. While we may have common ancestry, we are not simply evolved monkeys. We are not evolutions of apes in the same way as chimps did not descend from gorillas. Humans and chimpanzees are within the same tribe, however, that does not imply that we are descendants of each other, simply that we shared an ancestor earlier on.

According to Louise Leakey, the Bonobos shared 99% genes with modern human or Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo erectus were not just one group of people but there many variety among them. Just like today there black, white, Asian, tall, short, etc… Homo erectus from different part of the world were different as well. She also mention Homo erectus left Africa 90,000 generations ago and early African Homo sapiens left Africa 70,000 years