primates

Researchers find that densely packed neurons play an outsize role in quantitative skill—calling into question old assumptions about evolution.

World renowned primatologist Frans de Waal doesn’t see that viral GIF the same way we do.

Researchers showed that macaques were able to associate their actions on a joystick with an icon moving on a computer screen.

About ten years ago, Stephen Ross began getting more and more calls from chimpanzee owners who wanted to get rid of their pets. Ross is the director of the Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo and he administers the Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan. The increasing number of calls […]

Can't we just all get along? If we want to live in a world in which crested black macaques exist in the flesh, not just in photographs, we need to look beyond rights and start thinking hard about making the relationships we are in with other animals better and more sustainable.

People are not good at dealing with randomness. We tend to perceive patterns that aren’t there. One example of this is the hot-hand bias: the tendency to perceive streaks in sequential events when the probabilities are in fact random. This phenomenon was first noticed in basketball. Both fans and players erroneously believe a player’s chance […]

A group of Old World monkeys called guenons have undergone an incredible diversification in facial appearance to avoid interbreeding with closely related species.

Primates have big brains, demonstrate a lot of behavioral flexibility, and in some cases show complex understanding of social relationships and physical objects like tools. They’re also one of the most playful groups of animals. So scientists have wondered: are brain size, behavioral flexibility, and play related to one another? There are many theories as […]

How well can lemurs put themselves in another's perceptual space? That is, do have any idea what you might be seeing or hearing? The answer is ... both yes and no.

The sounds of marmoset monkeys chattering may hint at the mysterious origins of human language. A new study shows that marmosets exchange calls in a precisely-timed, back-and-forth fashion typical of human conversation, but not found in other primates. The monkeys don't appear to have a language, but the timing suggests the foundations of our own.

Primates tells the connected stories of three seminal primatologists, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas, deftly interweaving the three women's stories in an account that's equal parts biography and scientific history. Written by Jim Ottaviani and drawn and lettered by Maris Wicks, it draws from the diaries of all three scientists—as well as a slew of other sources detailed in a bibliography at the end—to paint a compelling picture of their work and lives.

Sounds made by a little-known primate living in Ethiopia’s mountain grasslands may hint at the origins of human speech. Unlike most other primates, which communicate in strings of short, relatively flat-toned syllables, geladas possess uncannily human-like vocal tempos and undulations.

Baboons, like people, really do get by with a little help from their friends. Humans with strong social ties live longer, healthier lives, whereas hostility and "loner" tendencies can set the stage for disease and early death. In animals, too, strong social networks contribute to longer lives and healthier offspring—and now it seems that personality may be just as big a factor in other primates' longevity status. A new study found that female baboons that had the most stable relationships with other females weren't always the highest up in the dominance hierarchy or the ones with close kin around—but they were the nicest.

Two bonobos living in an Iowa sanctuary have made stone tools resembling those used by our ancestors. The tools hint at untapped cognitive reserves in humanity's close relatives, who perhaps should be seen less as great apes than early humans.

The ancestors of all monkeys, apes, and humans may have arose in Asia and made the arduous journey to the island continent of Africa almost 40 million years ago.

Using an ingenious “gorilla cam” made with an iPhone and a cheap mirror, a NASA engineer with a DIY streak captured captivating close-up video of primates in a zoo. The video was made by part-time viral video prankster and full-time rocket scientist Mark B. Rober, who noticed during zoo visits that apes don’t like being […]

Art is usually considered a uniquely human ability, but that may not be true. Given the opportunity, animals like chimpanzees and gorillas and elephants produce abstract designs that arguably rise to artistic level.

The Philippine tarsier is a saucer-eyed primate that can let out -- and listen to -- squeaks and squeals at such a high frequency that it effectively gives the mammal a private communication channel.

Nature is supposed to be red in tooth and claw, and domestication an artificial process for making animals gentle. But it appears that some corners of the animal kingdom are becoming kinder, gentler places. Certain creatures may be domesticating themselves.

Gorillas use human-like facial expressions to communicate moods with one another, and two of the expressions -- both of which resemble grinning -- could show the origins of the human smile.

Even though 7 billion people live in Earth's every corner, and several centuries of scientists have catalogued its natural wonders, unknown creatures continue to be found.

There’s huge news today in biomedical research — a little outside my core topics, but so important that I thought it was worth highlighting for you anyway. A report by the Institute of Medicine has declared that most research on chimps in the United States is unnecessary and should cease. Experiments should only continue if […]

Look around and it's impossible to miss the importance of social interactions to human society. They form the basis of our families, our governments, and even our global economy. But how did we become social in the first place? Researchers have long believed that it was a gradual process, evolving from couples to clans to larger communities. A new analysis, however, indicates that primate societies expanded in a burst, most likely because there was safety in numbers.

Citation: “Community structure and diversity of tropical forest mammals: data from a global camera trap network.” By Jorge A. Ahumada, Carlos E. F. Silva, Krisna Gajapersad, Chris Hallam, Johanna Hurtado, Emanuel Martin, Alex McWilliam, Badru Mugerwa, Tim O’Brien, Francesco Rovero, Douglas Sheil, Wilson R. Spironello, Nurul Winarni and Sandy J. Andelman. Philosophical Transactions of the […]