Showing papers on "Primate published in 1974"

Rethinking primate origins.

Abstract: The Linnean concept of the order Primates, which included the bats and colugos, was still current as late as 1870. In 1873, Charles Darwin's antagonist St. G. Mivart proposed ordinal boundaries which excluded these animals, but which included the prosimians as a suborder of Primates. If progressive adaptation to living in trees transformed a tree-shrew-like ancestor into a higher primate, then primate-like traits must be better adaptations to arboreal locomotion and foraging than are their antecedents. Wood-Jones proposed that the absence of primate-like traits in other arboreal lineages resulted from a period of adaptation in each lineage to terrestrial locomotion. F. W. Jones's version of the arboreal theory holds, not that the primate characteristics will be selected for in any arboreal mammal lineage, but that they all result from the primates' unique preservation of the grasping hands and mobile forelimbs supposedly found in the arboreal ancestors of the Mammalia.

Sex-Dependent Behavioral Effects of Cerebral Cortical Lesions in the Developing Rhesus Monkey

Abstract: Male rhesus monkeys with orbital prefrontal lesions were imtpaired on behavioral tests at 2(1/2) months of age whereas similar deficits were not detected in females with comparable lesions until 15 to 18 months of age. The results suggest that the maturation of a cortical region in the primate brain proceeds at different tempos in males and females.

Detection of baboon type C viral sequences in various primate tissues by molecular hybridization.

Abstract: Nucleic acid sequences homologous to a single-stranded [(3)H]DNA transcript prepared from a baboon type C virus replicating in dog thymus cells can be readily detected in the cellular DNA of several Old World monkeys (baboon, patas, African green, and two species of macaques-rhesus and stumptail). These results demonstrate that primates other than the baboon also contain endogenous type C viral genes. With the hybridization conditions employed (S(1) nuclease, 65 C), no homologous sequences were detected in DNA from human or New World monkey tissues. Of various nonprimate tissues examined, only domestic cat cellular DNA was partially homologous to the baboon virus [(3)H]DNA transcript. In reciprocal experiments, [(3)H]DNA transcripts of RNAs from endogenous cat viruses (RD-114/CCC group) show a significant partial homology with cellular DNA from Old World primates (baboon, patas, and rhesus monkey). The partial homology between type-C-related information in the DNA of domestic cats and various Old World monkeys suggests the possibility of horizontal transmission between the progenitors of these animals at some point in evolution. No nucleic acid sequences homologous to [(3)H]DNA transcripts prepared from type C viruses isolated from tumor tissue of a woolly monkey and a gibbon ape could be detected in any primate tissue DNA examined; however, a partial nucleic acid homology was found between woolly monkey and gibbon ape type C viral [(3)H]DNA and normal mouse cellular DNA.

The form of the talus in some higher primates: a multivariate study.

Abstract: Sixteen measurements of the talus have been taken on 334 tali of a total of eleven primate groups and several additional single individual specimens. Multivariate morphometric (canonical and generalized distance) analyses of these data in extant higher primates are presented and used to define the relative morphological positions of fossils of the genera Proconsul and Limnopithecus, of individual specimens from Kromdraai, Olduvai and Kiik-Koba (Homo neanderthalensis), and a group of specimens of Bronze Age man from Jericho. Following preliminary studies the ultimate analysis suggests that the various extant arboreal primates examined fall within an envelope that is defined by Macaca together with various other Old World monkeys and extending in different directions to the extreme genera (a) Pongo, (b) Hylobates and (c) Ateles. This separation is thus one which defines generally quadrupedal monkeys and separates the various extreme arboreal locomotor modes of (a) acrobatic climbing and hanging, (b) richochetal brachiation and (c) prehensile-tailed arm-swinging and hanging, respectively. Man and the African apes are well separated both from each other and from this spectrum of arboreally adapted genera. Bronze Age man from Jericho and Neandertal man from Kiik-Koba lie relatively close to the position for modern man although significantly separated from him. Limnopithecus, Proconsul, and the specimens from Kromdraai and Olduvai all lie within the envelope of arboreal species and specifically rather close to, although significantly different from, the orang-utan; they differ markedly from both man and the African apes. The possibility exists that the resemblances of Proconsul and Limnopithecus relate to arboreal habitus in these species. The findings for the specimens from Kromdraai and Olduvai suggest either that the morphological resemblances to arboreal forms relate to a previous arboreal history for these species, or that bipedality is much less advanced or uniquely different from that displayed by Homo. It is not inconceivable that both conditions might apply.

Behavior of Prosimians

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses behavior of prosimians. Fossil evidence implies an evolutionary link between prosimian and monkey. Prosimians occupy a diversity of habitats within the tropical and semitropical regions of the Old World. In the wild, primates restrict their activities to a measurable, circumscribed geographic area called a home range. With the exception of the tupaiids and the possible exception of exclusively solitary species like Daubentonia madagascariensis, probably only female prosimians build nests. The lemurines and indriids are predominantly herbivorous and frugivorous. Together with a well-developed visual sense, one tends to think of a high degree of manual dexterity as one of the most important and obvious characteristics of the order Primates. Olfactory information may be expected to play a more important role in prosimians than in other primates. Dolhinow and Bishop regard play as a major category of primate behavior, as a preparation for adult life. Primates show intelligence both in relations with inanimate objects and in relations with social fellows.

Immunological competence in non-human primates: differences observed in four species.

Abstract: Previous studies have shown that the baboon and squirrel monkey are resistant to certain herpesviruses that cause serious infection or induce tumours in the cebus monkey and marmoset. This study was undertaken to evaluate the immunological competence of the four species of nonhuman primates. A variety of clinical immunological techniques were employed to evaluate the bursal, thymicdependent and phagocytic systems of immunity in these species. No primate was found to demonstrate immune competence of the same magnitude observed in normal humans. The baboon manifested immune responsiveness most closely resembling that of man. These animals displayed no abnormalities in circulating white blood cell populations, ability to form antibody, delayed skin response to mitogens or lymphocyte transformation in vitro. Rebuck skin window (RSW) findings closely resembled those observed in humans. While the squirrel monkey also appeared to be relatively competent, antibody formation, skin test reactivity and RSW responses were slightly less than those observed in the baboon. Cebus monkeys showed several abnormalities which included significant leukopenia, very low serum alpha-1 globulin levels, cutaneous anergy and a poor RSW response. The most marked abnormalities were found in the marmosets that had persistent leucocytosis, absent to poor antibody responses to immunogens, weak responses to phytohaemagglutinin in vivo and in vitro, with a uniquely greater response to pokeweed mitogen in vitro. The poor RSW response was similar to that observed in the squirrel monkey and cebus. While these studies suggest that baboons and squirrel monkeys are relatively intact immunologically, the marmoset and cebus monkey species appear to have significant manifestations of immunological incompetence in association with susceptibility to a variety of infectious and oncogenic agents.

Outline of a Primate Visual System

Abstract: The visual system of the genus Macaca has been the object of intensive study in recent years. This is partly because the macaques have color vision and visual acuity similar to the visual capabilities of man (DeValois and Jacobs, 1971). Unlike the great apes, they are small enough to be kept in a modest laboratory without massive equipment. The most commonly used species is Macaca mulatta, the rhesus monkey, but some of the neurophysiological and anatomical studies have used Macaca fascicularis. As far as we know, the visual systems of these two species are nearly identical, so I shall refer to both of them simply as macaques.

Reactivity of monkey erythrocytes in immune adherence.

Abstract: . Blood samples from 31 humans and 21 monkeys (9 Cercopithecus aethiopiae, 7 Macacus rhesus and 5 Papio anubis), were examined for suitability in the immune-adherence phenomenon, which is known to provoke agglutination of ‘primate’ red cells, when added to an antigen-antibody complex in presence of complement. The 21 monkey blood samples were all negative; in the meantime, under same conditions, only 5 of 31 human blood samples were unsuitable (similar values were obtained with human blood samples in prior research). The high frequency of negativity among the three monkey genera is probably due to the absence of a surface receptor on their red cells; suitability of primate red cells for immuneadherence should be reconsidered in accordance with this finding.