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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

As an anthropology student, I want to observe primates to challenge my knowledge of them. Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth. They have complex social structures, moreover; they are often cited as humans closest living relatives. I went to Lincoln zoo with my assistance (my brother to help me take photos while I observe the primates).

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.

According to my observation, even though Chimpanzee, and Gorilla are similar, they differ in many other ways when we go deeper in physical, and behavioral traits. However, both species also share the majority part of their DNA with Humans. Based on some reliable researches, some scientists realized that humans did not come from apes but instead shared common ancestors. As a matter of fact, humans and Primates are different, but share most of their genome, explaining why we found some similar patterns of behavior among humans, and

In this study, the authors sought to reveal surviving lineages that potentially arose from a number of ancient predecessors by identifying the Neandertal sequences present in the DNA of modern humans. The authors hypothesised that introgressed sequences - whereby the genes from the gene pool of one species are introduced into that of another during the process of hybridisation - vary between individuals. Consequently, the authors predicted that by analysing the DNA sequence of contemporary humans, a significant portion of the Neandertal genome could be retrieved.

Muireann Quigley, in his article, “Non-Human primates: the appropriate subjects of biomedical research?” discusses the ethical issue of whether or not we should be using non-human primates in biomedical research. Throughout this article, Quigley raises the question is it ethical to perform testing on non-human primates? By looking at the accuracy of this testing, the type of research done, and the capacity of the subjects we can see that if the experiment is not ethical to perform on a human then it is not ethical to conducted on a non-human primate.

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).

Primates, unlike humans are found only in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, African, and Asian continent. Primates come in different sizes and shapes. They range from Lemurs as small as, Madame Berthes Mouse Lemur to the largest primate living known as the Eastern Gorilla. Primates, similar to humans are species that play an important role in maintaining and influencing our ecological system. They maintain the forest system between animals and its resources by taking on various roles such as being herbivores, pollinators, and seed dispersers (Chapman & Peres, 2001). However, over time many species of primates have become endangered and are threatened with extinction due to human activities such as Habitat Destruction, Hunting/Bush meat, Pet Trade, and Diseases. “It has been estimated that more than 50% of all primate species are faced with some sort of threat” (Chapman & Peres, 2001). Leaving us with an increasing number of discovered and undiscovered primate species endangered or at the brink of extinction.

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.

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).

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.