2/2/2024 0 Comments Chimpanzee hand thumbRipe figs are almost always available when other fruits are scarce, so animals depend on them at these crucial periods.” “They’re not a particularly high-quality fruit, but in a given area, individual trees ripen at different times. “Figs are critically important,” Dominy says. It means chimps can forage more efficiently and consume more calories, especially during lean times when preferred foods are unavailable and they are forced to rely on figs. That speed can make all the difference when animals are competing for limited resources, Dominy says. What’s more, squeezing a fig is four times faster than plucking it, biting it and spitting it out if it was not ripe.Ĭhimpanzee in Kibale National Park, Uganda, squeezing a fig to test its ripeness. ![]() Monkeys that compete for the same food must rely on color and bite testing, but squeezing figs by chimpanzees supplies nearly 75 percent more information about ripeness than color. It’s fair for researchers to look at complex hand use among primates and ask if it was a precursor to the manual dexterity that gave rise to modern humans.”īased on field work in Uganda, Dominy and Peter Lucas, researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who served as one of the study’s co-authors, determined a chimpanzees’ ( Pan troglodytes) ability to feel the ripeness of a fig confers a significant advantage over rival species when selecting fruit. ![]() “Hands are a hallmark of human evolution. A surprising omission, he believes, given the importance of hand dexterity and tool use to human development. “We anthropologists have given little thought to why ape hands have greater dexterity than monkey hands,” says Nathaniel Dominy, evolutionary biologist at Dartmouth and lead author of the new study. ![]() This video shows a chimpanzee in Uganda evaluating figs (Ficus sansibarica ). Now, a new study published in the journal Interface Focus sheds light on how increased finger dexterity and sensitivity may have benefited the diets of early apes, allowing them a competitive edge in obtaining high-quality food. The additional brain power needed to operate dexterous hands called for a lot of nutritious, high-calorie food as well. Humans stand out as the only hominid with fully opposable thumbs that can turn in toward the palm to touch the tip of each finger.ĭeveloping such complex hands was a costly evolutionary feat, requiring not only anatomical changes to the wrist and fingers, but also expanded nervous tissue to process sensory and motor signals between fingers and brain. One of the primary features that distinguish hominids such as chimpanzees, gorillas and humans from the rest of the animal kingdom are uniquely dexterous hands. James was left massively disfigured from the incident.ĭespite everything, the couple continued to visit Moe until he mysteriously disappeared from the sanctuary.A chimpanzee in Kibale National Park, Uganda, bites a fig. After five minutes, LaDonna's screams caught the attention of the sanctuary owner's son. James jumped in to save his wife, and became the main victim of the attacking primates. Jealous of the Davises' attention to Moe, one went directly after LaDonna, biting her thumb off after an attempted tackle. Tragically, two chimpanzees escaped from their cages. One fateful day, the Davises were visiting Moe at the sanctuary for his 39th birthday. Many legal battles ensued, and Moe was eventually granted the right to stay at a sanctuary for apes, where the Davises could visit him. After a raid by police and animal control, Moe was eventually taken away by the state. ![]() When Moe was in his 30s, he began to display aggressive behaviors. The trio gained local fame, and Moe even made some TV appearances. They ate, slept, and watched TV together. Over the years, the human couple and their chimpanzee lived together in West Covina, CA, a suburb about 20 miles east of Los Angeles. Not long afterward, he and LaDonna finally married. Eventually, he came home, but he wasn't alone - he brought Moe, a newborn chimpanzee he had rescued from the wild, back home with him. James left LaDonna at the alter and then skipped town shortly after on a boat headed for Africa. They had planned to get married fresh out of high school - that is, until St. James and LaDonna Davis were high school sweethearts.
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