Simply stated, neoteny is the process by which the adults of a species retain the traits previously present only in juveniles, that is, the physiological development of the species' adults are slowed or delayed. In the human species evidence of the affects of neoteny can be seen in the form of flattened and broadened faces, a larger brain cavity, decreased body hair, smaller noses, and smaller teeth, decreased jaw size, shortening of arms and elongation of legs, and, most obviously, an extended period of childhood (Bjorklund, 1997)
Oddly, delaying maturation actually served humans as an evolutionary advantage. Despite humans and primates having split on the evolutionary path but there remain some remarkable developmental similarities between the two species (Boyd, 2009)
"The discovery that orthographic processing is achieved by neutral structures in the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (6, 7), a region that is bilaterally associated with object and face processing, has encourage a reconsideration of the role of basic object identification processing in visual word recognition." (Grainger, 2012) This study was done for reconsideration of a previous study
Reading the article from the Language Log, the article compares other sources that covered a study on a baboon learning to read English words. (Liberman, 2012) Each of the sources listed stated the titles different from each other and gave different impressions of what the baboon actually did
The main stream article puts the study in much simpler words and explains in more of a layman terms. (Press, 2012) It explains the study in a lot of ways the same as the original press release, except for the orthographic processing terminology and how the statistics were done
One of those colonies is off the coast of Costa Rica, on an island called Santiago Island, that has been "under constant scientific observation" since the colony was established in 1938. While Macaques thrive in many environments (because they are so adaptable), including snow and tropical rainforests, the Macaques on Santiago Island "go swimming in the surf" (Ankel-Simons, p
Unfortunately these apes are endangered, threatened with extinction, because of diminishing habitat. Meantime author Loren Coleman, writing in the book Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures (Coleman, 2007), insists that Orangutans do not swim
"Long-tailed macaques are excellent swimmers, and this may be a predator avoidance technique," writes the University of Wisconsin's Kristina Cawthon Lang in Primate Factsheet. If the long-tailed macaque is threatened by a feral dog, raptor, python, monitor lizard or large cat, the macaque simply drops into the water and swims to safety (Lang, 2006)
The London Times reports that some naturalists are "shocked" when they see apes swim across a river in Borneo. In an April, 2008 piece, Lewis Smith writes that Orangutans had previously been thought of as non-swimmers, but on a research science trip to Borneo, scientists witnessed an Orangutan swimming across a wide river in order to get to "some of their favourite fruits at a conservation refuge on Kaja island" (Smith, 2008)
In lemurs, the nerves responsible for olfaction pass between the orbits from the internal cavity to the brain. In addition to their sense of smell, lemurs and tarsiers have another sense that is important in sexual communication -- Jacobson's organ, stimulated by substances found in urine of female primates and permits other individuals to determine chemically the reproductive status of a female (Fleagle, 1999, p
Single infants are most common, but twins are frequent when food is plentiful. Over the next five months, infants spend increased time alone, returning to the mother to nurse or sleep until weaned at five to six months of age (Jones, Martin & Pilbeam, 1992, p
The most striking features of S. tchadensis are its tiny brain combined with a huge brow ridge and a very short, non-snouty face -- unlike the face of a chimp or australopithecine (Meek)
The cranial capacity of a lemur is only about 24 cubic centimeters, compared to the gorilla of 505 cc and orangutan of 497 cc. The scanty evidence from prosimian fossils as far back as 55 million years ago shows relatively large occipital and temporal lobes and relatively small olfactory lobes (Noback & Montagne, 1970, p
Examples would include voluntary food sharing, teaching, allo-maternal care and care for other apes that are injured or are otherwise in distress. Similarly, there are a lot of cooperative breeders among callitriche monkeys and social carnivores (Anzenberger & Falk, 2012)
for food, etc.), they are much more likely to break away from their usual patterns and engage in cooperation (De Waal, 2006)
Another factor is reciprocity. Indeed, an animal will tend to be more apt to cooperate if there is a symbiotic benefit involved in being part of the cooperation (Jaeggi, Burkart and Van Schaik 2010)
There are always exceptions but that is indeed the general rule (Jaeggi, Burkart and Van Schaik 2010). The same can be said for the cooperation and motor coordination that has been observed with macaque monkeys (Visco-Comandini et al
" In other words, they give help and they get a good return on that help in the form of help in return. Humans are also cooperative breeders so this is just one way that humans and primates tend to be alike in at least a general sense (Yamamoto et al
, 2012). Indeed, illegal hunts have been a major problem in many countries (Borgerson, 2015)
Indeed, there are fourteen species of lemurs that are already done. In Africa, there are fifteen genera and fifty-five species (Eppley et al