How status sticks to genes. Duke Today, Oct. 15, 2019. Life at the bottom of the social ladder may have long-term health effects that even upward mobility can’t undo, according to new research in monkeys.
Category Archives: primates
Aerial acrobatics in early apes
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Aerial acrobatics in early apes. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. March 12, 2019. Tiny wrist bones belonging to apes that lived some 20 million years ago suggest they used some pretty modern moves to get around in the trees.
Lemur Center names new executive director
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Lemur Center names new executive director. Duke Today, Feb. 13, 2019. Greg Dye will take over as director of the Duke Lemur Center, the world’s largest and most diverse collection of lemurs outside their native Madagascar. He will succeed biology professor Anne Yoder, who led the center for 12 years.
Clues to resistance
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Clues to resistance. 1,100 Words on Duke Research. February 5, 2019. In 2000, 23-year-old Gimble from Gombe National Park — made famous by Jane Goodall — became the first wild chimpanzee to test positive for simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the primate precursor to HIV. Now, he and hundreds of other wild chimpanzees across sub-Saharan Africa are helping researchers understand what makes some chimps more resistant to infection.
Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin’
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Baboon sexes differ in how social status gets ‘under the skin.’ Duke Today, December 17, 2018. In humans and many other animals, the lower an individual’s social status, the worse their health. But new research in wild baboons suggests that the nature of the status-health relationship depends on whether an individual has to fight for status, or it’s given to them.
Mapping trees can help count endangered lemurs
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Mapping trees can help count endangered lemurs. Duke Today, August 30, 2018. Putting a figure on the number of endangered lemurs left in the wild isn’t easy, but Duke University researchers say one clue might help: the plants they rely on for food. Bamboo lemur populations in their native Madagascar may have shrunk by half over the last two decades; red-fronted brown lemurs by as much as 85 percent. But numbers for other lemur species may not be as low as feared, new models suggest.
Lemurs can smell weakness in each other
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Lemurs can smell weakness in each other. Duke Today, June 28, 2018. Some people watch the competition carefully for the slightest signs of weakness. Lemurs, on the other hand, just give them a sniff. These primates from Madagascar can tell that a fellow lemur is weaker just by the natural scents they leave behind, finds a study on ring-tailed lemurs led by Duke University researchers. The study reveals that getting hurt dampens a lemur’s natural aroma, and that males act more aggressively toward scents that smell “off.” Picked up by National Geographic.
How infighting turns toxic for chimpanzees
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How infighting turns toxic for chimpanzees. Duke Today, March 26, 2018. How did a once-unified community of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, end up at each other’s throats? In a new study, researchers mapped the chimps’ social networks at different periods leading up to the split to pinpoint when relations began to fray, and test ideas about what caused the rift. The most likely culprit was a power struggle among three top-ranking males, which was made worse by a shortage of fertile females, results show. Picked up by Quartz, CBC News, Seeker, Futurity and the Daily Mail.
Bonobos prefer jerks
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Bonobos prefer jerks. Jan. 4, 2018. Never trust anyone who is rude to a waiter, advice columnists say. But while humans generally prefer individuals who are nice to others, a Duke University study finds bonobos are more attracted to jerks. The fact that our closest primate relatives prefer bullies suggests that an aversion to creeps is one of the things that makes humans different from other species, and may underlie our unusually cooperative nature. Picked up by Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, UPI, Science News, Quartz, Radio France, Le Figaro, France Inter, Smithsonian, Cosmos, Daily Mail, Discover Magazine, Scientific American and National Public Radio.
Chimp females who leave home postpone parenthood
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Chimp females who leave home postpone parenthood. Nov. 20, 2017. Female chimps that lack supportive friends and family wait longer to start having babies, Duke University researchers find. An analysis of more than 50 years’ worth of daily records for female chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania indicates that would-be moms who leave home or are orphaned take roughly three years longer to start a family. Picked up by the Daily Mail.
Bonobos help strangers without being asked
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Bonobos help strangers without being asked. Duke Today, Nov. 7, 2017. The impulse to be kind to strangers was long thought to be unique to humans, but research on bonobos suggests our species is not as exceptional in this regard as we like to think. Famously friendly apes from Africa’s Congo Basin, bonobos will go out of their way to help a stranger get food even when there is no immediate payback, researchers show. What’s more, they help spontaneously without having to be asked first. Picked up by Newsweek, Psychology Today, Daily Mail, National Geographic, Reddit, ABC.es and Le Monde.
Humans don’t use as much brainpower as we like to think
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Humans don’t use as much brainpower as we like to think. Duke Today, Oct. 31, 2017. For years, scientists assumed that humans devote a larger share of calories to their brains than other animals. Although the human brain makes up only 2 percent of body weight, it consumes more than 25 percent of the body’s energy budget. But a comparison of the relative brain costs of 22 species found that other animals have hungry brains too. Picked up by the Daily Mail, IFLScience, Futurity and United Press International.
Gregg Gunnell, fossil hunter, dies at 63
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Gregg Gunnell, fossil hunter, dies at 63. Duke Today, September 25, 2017. Gregg Gunnell, 63, a Duke University paleontologist who oversaw a collection of more than 30,000 fossils from around the world, died of lymphoma Wednesday, September 20 at Duke University Hospital in Durham. Gunnell spent more than 40 years studying fossils hidden in layers of rock for clues to what kinds of animals lived there, what they looked like and how they changed over time.
Even preschoolers play fair, but chimps? Not so much.
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Even preschoolers play fair, but chimps? Not so much. Duke Today, Sept. 14, 2017. Chimps don’t care if they’re caught cheating. But preschoolers do, and that’s one of the keys to what makes us human, says Michael Tomasello, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.
Why your ancestors would have aced the long jump
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Why your ancestors would have aced the long jump. Duke Today, Sept. 11, 2017. A 52-million-year-old ankle fossil suggests our prehuman ancestors were high-flying acrobats. For years, scientists thought the ancestors of today’s humans, monkeys, lemurs and apes were relatively slow and deliberate animals, using their grasping hands and feet to creep along small twigs and branches. But a new study suggests the first primates were masters at leaping through the trees. Picked up by New Scientist, the Daily Mail, Futurity and NSF 360.
Lemur research gets a gut check
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Lemur research gets a gut check. Duke Research blog, June 19, 2017. Researchers have tracked changes in lemur gut microbiomes during and after infection with a widespread intestinal parasite called Cryptosporidium. The diarrheal illness caused by the parasite wipes out much of the animals’ gut flora, the researchers found, but fecal transplants can help them recover. The team says their findings could help develop probiotic treatments for captive primates, as well as humans battling similar diarrheal diseases.
Building a virtual ark for lemurs
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Building a virtual ark for lemurs. Duke Today, April 11, 2017. X-ray scanning immortalizes endangered primates in the digital afterlife, in 3-D.
Jumping genes suspected in Alzheimer’s
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Jumping genes suspected in Alzheimer’s. Duke Today, Mar. 8, 2017. A string of failed drug trials for Alzheimer’s has researchers questioning the reigning approach to battling the disease, which focuses on preventing amyloid buildup in the brain. Duke scientists have identified a molecular mechanism that could help explain how neurons begin to falter even before amyloid clumps appear. The culprit, they say, may be “jumping genes” that lose their normal controls with age and start to disrupt the machinery that fuels brain cells. Picked up by STAT and Science News.
Why baboon males resort to domestic violence
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Why baboon males resort to domestic violence. Duke Today, Jan. 18, 2017. Some baboon males vying for a chance to father their own offspring expedite matters in a gruesome way — they kill infants sired by other males and attack pregnant females, causing them to miscarry, researchers report. Infanticide has been documented in other animals including baboons, lions and dolphins, but rarely feticide. The perpetrators are more prone to commit domestic violence when forced to move into a group with few fertile females, the study finds. Picked up by The Times (South Africa), Cosmos Magazine, Smithsonian and Seeker of the Discovery Channel.
Genetic opposites attract when chimpanzees choose a mate
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Genetic opposites attract when chimpanzees choose a mate. Duke Today, Jan. 11, 2017. Duke University researchers find that chimpanzees are more likely to reproduce with mates whose genetic makeup most differs from their own. Many animals avoid breeding with parents, siblings and other close relatives, researchers say. But chimps are unusual in that even among virtual strangers they can tell genetically similar mates from more distant ones. Chimps are able to distinguish degrees of genetic similarity among unfamiliar mates many steps removed from them in their family tree. Picked up by UPI.com and the Daily Mail.
Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys
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Upward mobility boosts immunity in monkeys. Duke Today, Nov. 24, 2016. The richest and poorest Americans differ in life expectancy by more than a decade. Health inequalities across the socioeconomic spectrum are often attributed to medical care and lifestyle habits. But a study of rhesus monkeys shows the stress of life at the bottom can impact immunity even in the absence of other risk factors. Infection sends immune cells of low-ranking monkeys into overdrive, but social mobility can turn things around, researchers report in Science. Picked up by BBC News, Scientific American, The Telegraph, The Scientist, Science Magazine, Science News, the Daily Mail, New Scientist and The New York Times.
As life expectancy grows, men still lagging
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As life expectancy grows, men still lagging. Duke Today, Nov. 21, 2016. Babies born in the longest-lived countries today can expect to live, on average, at least to their 80th birthday, and some will even manage to pass 100. But despite big gains in life expectancy males still lag behind females, and not just in humans but across the primate family tree. Picked up by Fox News, Huffington Post, Vocativ, U.S. News & World Report, the Daily Mail and Voice of America.
Apes understand that some things are all in your head
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Apes understand that some things are all in your head. Duke Today, Oct. 6, 2016. We all know that the way someone sees the world, and the way it really is, aren’t always the same. This ability to recognize that someone’s beliefs may differ from reality has long been seen as unique to humans. But new research on chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans suggests our primate relatives may also be able to tell when something is just in your head. Picked up by The New York Times, The Guardian, Science Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Independent, CBC, Cosmos, the Raleigh News & Observer and the Daily Mail.
Lemur poop could pinpoint poaching hotspots
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Lemur poop could pinpoint poaching hotspots. Duke Research Blog, Sept. 22, 2016. DNA detective works aims to map the illegal pet lemur trade in Madagascar.
Lemurs mix smelly secretions to make richer, longer-lasting scents
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Lemurs mix smelly secretions to make richer, longer-lasting scents. Duke Today, April 19, 2016. Humans aren’t alone in their ability to mix perfumes and colognes. Lemurs, too, get more out of their smelly secretions by combining fragrances from different scent glands to create richer, longer-lasting scents, finds a study led by Duke University. Picked up by Mental Floss, Scientific American, Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, and the Daily Mail.