primates
gregladen | January 16, 2008Traveling from Ecuador to Africa, Jane Goodall takes the audience on an ecological journey, discussing highlights and low points of her experiences in the jungle. She shows how progress is helping research (DNA analysis) and hurting the environment (clear-cutting). And she draws a dozen parallels between primate and human behavior, making the point that we really aren't all that different. Our big advantage, she says, is the ability to communicate with sophisticated spoken language -- yet, sadly, we are abusing this power and destroying the planet. She urges the TED audience to behave…
gregladen | January 14, 2008There is a new baby orangutan born at the Como Zoo in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I mention this for the edification of my local readers (who probably already know about it) and not as a statement of support or opposition to zoos, orangutans, or babies.
Details, including photographs, here on Science Buzz.
gregladen | November 28, 2007It may be nothing more than slinging shit, but when you run out of shit:
Wild gorillas have been seen using "weapons" for the first time, giving a new insight into how early man learned to use sticks and stones for fighting and hunting millions of years ago.
Researchers observed gorillas in the Cross River area of Cameroon throwing sticks, clumps of earth and stones at human "invaders".
It is the first time that the largest of the great apes has been seen to use tools in an aggressive way.
[source]
laelaps | November 3, 2007
Today's photo is of a Lesser Tree Shrew (Tupaia minor), sitting still for a split second allowing me to get a somewhat blurry shot. I wasn't initially thinking of putting this one up today, but I thought it would be a topical choice given a new study in Scienceout this week that suggests Colugos (Family Cynocephalidae) may be more closely related to primates than Tree Shrews (Order Scandentia). Using partial genomic data from both groups (plus primates), the research team found that the colugos were more closely related to primates than the tree shrews, although we have yet to see if this…