Eight Primate Research

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely Monday afternoon observing two different primates at the Santa Ana Zoo. I got to the zoo around two in the afternoon, and to my surprise, the zoo was decently crowded. The Santa Ana Zoo is smaller in comparison to other zoos like the Los Angeles Zoo, but still had a decent amount of animals there. Covering a small 20 acres of land, I came across two primates that fit perfectly for the purposes of this course project. I chose to observe an endangered ape, the white-handed gibbon, and an endangered new world monkey, the golden-headed lion tamarin.

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.

Throughout the term, reading the book, “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall has been quite intriguing for me, in that it has inspired me with new ideas and perceptions about how our own species has evolved over time. I have really enjoyed seeing the many similarities that hominids share with other primate species, especially chimpanzees. Goodall’s research only further proves that we are not only extremely biologically similar to chimpanzees in our DNA, but have many behavioral similarities as well. The film, “Monkey in the Mirror” also shows support for our likeness in intellectuality. These documented findings on chimpanzee and human resemblances provides the strong evidence needed to conclude the fact that humans do indeed share a common ancestor with great apes.

They are very fast and can be able to run within short distances using the most minimal time. It takes less than 10 seconds to run within a distance of approximately 100 meters. While the animals move around they try to monitor the environment as quadrupedally and monitoring of the environment can be able to take as much as up to ten minutes in any case they have doubts of where they are, this alerts them of any predators. Consortship is a situation where the two animals would stay close to each other and monitor the movement and environment of each other. This is done as long as the animals are out in an environment that is not seen as being friendly. The patas can be seen to be less vocal and they move around in silence, they make certain noise only once when they have seen a predator. The noise or the sound takes just a few seconds as long as the danger is taken away

There is a circumstance that has beset the understanding of evolution over time that there is no general theory involving primate evolution. Most of the theories are just mere speculation. Over the years, primates like gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons all happened to have their turn in evolution. It was previously presumed that the taxon of interest happened to have the exact similar physiology and ecology as the analog taxon (Rafferty, 2010).The majority of the first primate species theories have been utilized because they solely share one fundamental characteristic with the hominines with the chimpanzees as the phylogenetic cousins. This paper addresses the different ecological conditions that handled the evolution of primates. It

However, the ME for the mitochondrial 16s rRNA shows that gorilla is more closely related to the chimpanzee and the bonobo, when compared to the other primates (Figure 11.3A). Furthermore, all of the four trees produced show that modern humans and Neanderthals appear as a monophyletic clade 100% of bootstrap replication times which supports the first hypothesis stating that Neanderthals would be the closest relatives to modern humans, when compared to the other primates (Figure 11.3A, 11.3B).

In the past few years, advancements in biotechnology and a growing collection of hominid bone remnants have allowed paleoanthropologists to gain insight into how populations of different archaic hominid species interacted. In particular, sequencing of the Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) genome has provided evidence that the evolution of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) was influenced by interbreeding and gene flow between the two species of Homo. By comparing Neanderthal and modern human DNA, researchers have been able to produce evidence that would support the notion that not only was interbreeding possible, but also that it likely happened and produced a selective advantage.

Throughout time man has evolved. Common belief is that Homo sapiens evolved from primates and then, by following the Darwinistic theory of evolution, Neanderthals, when in fact they all evolved alongside each other, sharing common ancestors rather than directly coming from one another. This then lead to similarities in the DNA as well to the high probability that there was interbreeding between the species; phylogenic tree mappings of the mitochondrial DNA of numerous different modern humans from around the world as well as the mtDNA of an assortment of Homo neanderthalensis were able to show the similarities of the two species along with the human descent from their origins in Africa to other areas of the world.

Where did we come from? This question has plagued us as a species since our conception and it has been the pinnacle of humanity to discover what we are and how we came to be. Through the use of modern science and our understanding of evolution, we are closer to determining how our species evolved than we have ever been before. Our closest hominid relative, the Neanderthal, is one such link to our past that we study to understand how we came to be. In studying this species, it brings about questions that have puzzle scientist in recent years. These are questions that delve deeper into the differences and similarities between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Many modern humans migrated out of Africa around 125,000 to 60,000 years ago leaving behind what are now modern Africans in the continent. Those who migrated out of Africa dispersed over time, colonizing much of Europe and Asia. This theory is known as the Out of Africa Theory (Stringer, 2000).

Sequencing data suggests that there has been some form of gene flow between Neandertals and their sister lineage, Denisovans, which resulted in modern humans. It is estimated that one to three percent of a non-African human’s genome has been inherited from Neandertals, with coalescent models suggesting that 35 to 70 percent of the Neandertal genome is present in the DNA of modern humans.

After voluminous amounts of studies, it is known that million years ago, the first human arose from our beloved ancestor, the Great Ape and just as humans arose, so has the way research can be approached. Molecular data can be used in modern phylogeny as a form to study evolutionary biology. This approach is practical because it uses extracted DNA and protein sequences to do an analysis on the sequence by finding similar sequences to it, in which help in phylogenetic reconstruction. In this study, two molecular markers were used: 16S rDNA and mtNCR (control region) to generate common ancestors among both markers. It was crucial to construct the phylogenetic tree to view the phenotypic evolution of the Great Apes.

For many years, scientists have been finding additional and new evidence about evolution and our family tree. This Face Changes the Human Story. But How? (Shreeve 2015) discusses the findings of mysterious fossil remains which effect human evolution by providing additional and new information as a new species. The new mysterious fossils could possibly be a missing link in human evolution between apes and humans. Science is always changing as scientist are constantly making new discoveries. This new mysterious species has the potential to expand and fill in the gaps of human evolution but it takes time and should not be rushed in order to execute the findings as accurately as possible.

Human evolution is the gradual process in which people, or Homo sapiens, originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence, particularly in the form of fossils and secondary remains, show that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people evolved over a period of approximately six million years. Humans are primates. Both genetic and physical similarities show that humans and the great apes (large apes) of Africa, chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas share a common ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. The volume of fossils found in Africa suggests that most evolution occurred there and is likely the place of origin for early humans. This brings to fruition the “out of Africa” theory, also called the “single-origin hypothesis.”

By creating the phylogeny trees, based on the mitochondrial 16s rRNA and mtDNA control region makers, using MP and ME methods, we were able to determine the relationship between the eight primates. For instance, in the MP phylogeny based tree for mitochondrial 16s rRNA, modern humans and Neanderthal form a sister taxa that is more closely related to chimpanzee (Figure 11.3A).

Human evolution according to research started over 6 million years ago. The outcome of the evolution process is the current human beings. Scientific studies have revealed over the years a remarkable affinity between the chimpanzees/Apes and human beings. Even though this reality is not a definitive prove that human beings evolved from apes, it does show that the human beings are in one way or another related to other primates. Scientists suppose that the humans and the primates shared a common ancestor. The subject of what makes humans what they are and their origin has been the exclusive purpose leading to many scientific studies globally (Coolidge & Wynn, 2011). Studies believe that Africa was the origin of evolution millions of years ago. Fossil remains have been discovered in different parts of Africa as well as other regions of the world. Different hominins have been discovered around the world in the last 1 million years. Thus, the different discoveries have led to comparisons between the various species of hominins to clarify on their similarities as well as differences. This essay seeks to explain whether they were distinctively different species or regional versions of the same species.