Greetings From Yale University: Peabody Museum Of Natural History

Hi all. Sorry for not posting for a bit (it's been a week!) but I've been busy being sick and getting everything ready for my grad school application which was due yesterday.

I went to Connecticut this weekend and I think you guys should check out Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History if you haven't. Their "Hall of Mammalian Evolution", "Primates" and "Fossil Fragments: The Riddle of Human Origins" are worth checking out.

 
My favorite was the primate exhibit, of course, but I also like the cast of Nariokotome Boy (An 8 year-old Homo erectus found in Lake Turkana, Kenya).

Attention To Elders' Voice In Campbell's Monkeys

Campbell's Monkey. Image: Patricio Robles Gil/Minden Pictures/FLPA from Newscientist.

A new paper from Biology Letters by Lemasson et al. (2009) observed that Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli) pay more attention to the vocalization of older individuals. The authors posit that attention to vocalization of older individuals not only exist in humans but also in non-human primates. Since aging is sometimes synonymous to wisdom in human culture, the authors think that the propensity for younger individuals to pay more attention to the vocalization of elders has a biological basis both in humans and non-human primates. Younger individuals simply listen carefully what the older individuals have to say because they are wiser and more accountable.

Read about the article, Attention to elders' voice in non-human primates on Biology Letters. Also, NewScientist has an article on this too, Respect for elders 'may be universal' in primates.

As some of you might remember, these are the monkeys that are said to understand primitive form of syntax.

Oldest Anthropoid Fossil Hails From Thailand, Said Thai Officials

So supposedly a newly publicized paper back in November 2009 confirms that the oldest primate anthropoid fossil comes from the southern province of Krabi, Thailand (according to some Thai news articles, which unfortunately I cannot find where they cited their primary sources). It was discovered 14 years ago by Thailand's Mineral Resources Department archaeologists. Siamopithecus eocaenus supposedly roamed the earth 35 million years ago and is in fact currently the oldest primate anthropoid fossil from the fossil record (again, can't find where they cited the primary source). Thanks to Mae Kai Fa for pointing out that it is the oldest "anthropoid" fossil not primate fossil, which makes more sense.

Siamopithecus eocaenus or the Siam Ape gets its name from the country it was found. Siam was the official name of Thailand until 1939, although it is still somewhat used synonymously with Thailand.

Fragments of the fossil includes the lower right molars and upper left and right molars that are attached to the eye bone. Researchers think that S. eocaenus is about the size of a gibbon, weighs around 7kg and belongs to the Amphipithecidae family.

So, I don't know. This sounds a bit like the Darwinius massilae fiasco all over again. I also wonder why no one picked up this news, except a sprinkle of Thai news websites. What do you think? The paper pointed out by these articles is possibly The Face of Siamopithecus: New Geometric-Morphometric Evidence for Its Anthropoid Status by Zollikoffer et al. (2009) that was published in The Anatomical Record on November. Unfortunately I do not have access to that journal so I can't verify whether the paper did point out that S. eocaenus is indeed 35 million years ago.

Some Thai news article:
Oldest primate fossils found by Bangkok Post.
35-mn-year-old fossil raises questions on primates' origin by Prokerala.com.
Oldest primate fossils found in Krabi by National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT).

Brucellosis In Australopithecus Africanus Skeleton: Evidence Of Meat Eating In Early Hominin?

Brucellosis is an infectious disease cause by the bacteria, Brucella sp. These bacterias localize in the reproductive organs of the host animals and are shed in large numbers through the animal's urine, milk, placental fluid and other fluids. Exposure to infected animals and animal products causes brucellosis in modern humans.

Does possible brucellosis diagnosis in early hominin skeleton Stw 431(Australopithecus africanus) from Sterkfontein, South Africa suggests that A. africanus occasionally eat meat? Maybe. That is what the paper Possible Brucellosis in an Early Hominin Skeleton from Sterkfontein, South Africa (D'Anastasio et al., 2009) is about. The presence of lesions on the vertebral bodies of Stw 431 was diagnosed as spondylosis deformans due to trauma but the authors suggest that these lesions were actually pathological changes from the initial phases of brucellosis.

Reference:
eMedicine. 2010. Brucellosis. Retrieved January 05, 2010, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/213430-overview

Happy New Year Y'all. Dolphins Smarter Than Chimps?

Happy New Year to all my readers, humans and non-humans alike (I've caught my cat reading my blog more than twice). Sorry for not posting this few days but I've been sick since New Year. Suffice to say, 2010 didn't really start on a good note for me.

Apparently 2010 did not start on a good note with my fellow primate, the chimpanzees, either. Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia claim that the second most intelligent creature after humans are dolphins, not chimpanzees as many researchers believed. Diana Reiss, a psychology professor from Hunter College (CUNY) in New York City found that bottlenose dolphins can recognize themselves in front of the mirror and learn rudimentary symbol-based language. Both Marino and Reiss will present their findings at a conference in San Diego, California, next month. These findings have tremendous implications on human-dolphin interactions, specifically the use of dolphins for entertainment in marine parks.

Sad chimpanzee is sad because he is no longer the second smartest after humans.

Read the article Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons' from Times Online. I wonder if both had any papers that will be published soon about this topic. I've only found Marino & Reiss (2001) Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence and Marino (2002) Convergence of Complex Cognitive Abilities in Cetaceans and Primates. Why is this story being published in 2010, almost 8 years since the papers were published? Something is fishy here (no puns intended because dolphins are in fact mammals, not fish).