hl_1001/Flickr
Newly recognised genetic populations carry their evolutionary history with them, and the history of their habits. This is why detecting new species is so important.
A reconstruction of Euchambersia with its venomous and ridged fangs.
SimplexPaléo/Alex Bernardini (alex-bernardini.fr)
CT scanning allows scientists to observe and “dissect” fossils digitally using computer software - and to uncover secrets that are hundreds of millions of years old.
A bonobo mother and her child.
Pixabay
Primate populations are declining around the world. The great apes are in danger of disappearing, and that bears a great risk for humanity itself.
All primates have opposable thumbs – and some flaunt these in the cutest way.
Courtesy of Lory Park Zoo
Much like the hair you carefully rearrange before a selfie, your cheek muscles and the accompanying smile date back about 250 million years.
POJ THEVEENUGUL / shutterstock
We have the penis of a monogamous primate yet our body sizes suggest our ancestors slept around a lot.
The fabulous red-shanked douc.
nattanan726 / shutterstock
Our closest relatives are being wiped out and it’s all our fault.
Hello, I’m 4% of the global population.
Jess Bryant
It risks becoming the first ape to go extinct.
All shapes and sizes.
Didier Descouens
New research uncovers the role of the primate baculum and may explain why humans don’t have one.
The grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus ): at 60 grams, nearly the smallest primate in the world. I studied this primate in Madagascar.
Jason Gilchrist, www.jasongilchrist.co.uk
As Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House, there may be dark days ahead for some of the world’s rarest and most beautiful primates.
One of Newcastle’s macaque monkeys.
Newcastle University
Without research on primates, we wouldn’t be able to understand the human brain – or repair it.
The best of friends.
Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock
Because primates have relationships too you know.
Jenny Desmond
A small but dedicated team is offering these abandoned apes a brighter future.
But I asked for green highlights!
Edwin Butter / shutterstock
There must be some evolutionary force acting to maintain this visual ‘defect’.
The brain processes different facial features separately, so how does it tie them together?
Shutterstock
Different parts of our brains process different things, like the facial features, voices and the gait of people we know. But it takes memory to weave them all together into a single picture.
Yuttasak Jannarong / shutterstock
Archaeological remains, traditional tribes and conflict among chimpanzees can tell us much about the history of human warfare.
An orang-utan playing with the interactive digital projector at the Melbourne Zoo.
Microsoft Research Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces at the University of Melbourne
An experiment providing interactive games for orang-utans is showing the potential for digital technology to enrich the lives of zoo animals.
Roaring ursine howler monkeys in Venezuela.
Carolyn M. Crockett
Social organisation plays a key role in the wide variation seen in the size of male howler monkey calls and the size of their testes.
Understanding how evolution affects behaviour can help address societal problems.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Evolution also does not claim humans evolved from primates. Neither does it say non-human primates, including monkeys, baboons, chimpanzees and gorillas, will evolve into humans with time.
We’re not that different from you.
Christopher Drake/Flickr
We can learn a lot about ourselves and our evolutionary history by looking at the personalities of our primate cousins.
How do you do?
International Fund for Animal Welfare Animal Rescue/flickr
Chimps might be cute and cuddly but it’s their human drama that obsesses us.