Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Primates - Locomotion

Lemurs (Posimians/Strepsirhini)

Environment:  Lemurs rule the treetops of the tropical rainforest. Many species live in Madagascar’s tropical rainforests, but some live in dry deciduous forests.

Locomotion: The locomotion behavior of lemurs depends upon the species. The below table is a quick study of what type of locomotion behavior is and was exhibited by different lemur species.
Lemur Species
Locomotion Behavioral Characteristic
Indris
Vertical clinging and leaping
Bamboo lemurs
Vertical clinging and leaping
Mesopropithecus
Slow arboreal quadrupedal
True lemurs
Fast arboreal quadrupedal
Ruffed lemurs
Fast arboreal quadrupedal
Ring-tailed Lemur
Partially terrestrial quadrupedal
Monkey lemurs
Highly terrestrial quadrupedal
Sloth lemurs
Sloth-like suspensory locomotion


Lemurs are quadrupedal, they use all four limbs for locomotion. The lemurs’ strong hands and fingers help them to climb trees easily. Their muscular legs are adapted for jumping. When they need a change of scenery, they hop to another branch.

How locomotion has been influenced by its environment:
Lemurs adapted to their environment rather well.  Since they are either on the ground or in the trees the locomotion movement of Lemurs has adapted well to their environment.  They are able to move on the ground rather quickly and if need be can leap into the trees and have great balance.

Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini)

Environment:  Spider monkeys live in tropical rainforests of South and Central America, from Southern Mexico to Brazil.  These new world monkeys live in the upper layers of the rainforest and forage in the high canopies.  Spider monkeys prefer large tracts of moist evergreen forests and they prefer undisturbed primary forests.  Spider monkeys are well adjusted to the life in the tree tops of the rainforest because they are strong and agile and can find food with the resources that they have. 

Locomotion: Spider monkeys use several different types of locomotion: quadrupedal, using all four limbs for locomotion as seen while walking or running; suspensory locomotion used when hanging, climbing or moving through the trees and bipedalism, using only two limbs when leaping. Quadrupedal locomotion is usually observed if the monkey is on a stable relatively substrate free of obstacles. When they are using suspensory locomotion they may be brachiating (swinging with their arms from one branch to another while often maintaining a tail hold).  The most commonly used pattern of body movement while in a feeding pattern is that of quadrupedal, climbing and suspensory locomotion. While traveling they mostly employ quadrupedal walking and running, suspensory locomotion and climbing.

How locomotion has been influenced by its environment:
Spider Monkeys locomotion was influenced by the primate environment greatly.  If this primate was not able to hang from a tree or able to swing from branch to branch and had to walk on the ground they would be more prone to being eaten by a bigger predator.  With the ability to hang from the trees and swing from the branches they are able to stay up in the high trees and keep themselves safe from the predators on the ground. 

Baboon (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)

Environment: The two most common baboons occur in East Africa, the olive baboon and the yellow baboon. The larger and darker olive baboon is found in Uganda, west and central Kenya and northern Tanzania. Baboons generally prefer savanna and other semi-arid habitats, though a few live in tropical forests.  They are active at irregular times throughout the day and night.  In Africa, baboons can raid human dwellings and have been known to prey on sheep and goats.  Baboons are extremely adaptable, the major requirements that baboons need for any habitat that they are in is water, and safe sleeping places.  Baboons like to sleep either in tall trees or on cliff faces.

Locomotion: Baboon can and do climb trees to sleep, eat, or look out for trouble. They spend much of their time on the ground. Baboons locomotor pattern is quadrupedal and on their digits. Walking on their digits means walking on their toes with the heels not touching the ground.  This is known as being a digitigrade quadrupedalism.

How locomotion has been influenced by its environment:
Baboons walk on all fours and their digits which are the tips of their toes and the knuckles of their hands.  This locomotion trait I believe was adapted to help the baboons keep their hands and the soles of their feet from becoming to rough. They do not have prehensile tails. They spend their times mostly on the ground, but they do climb trees for sleeping, eating, and avoiding predators. 

Gibbons (Lesser ape/Hylobatidae)

Environment: Gibbons live in subtropical rainforests from northeast India to Indonesia and north to southern China, including the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java.  Gibbons spend less than 1% on the ground, which helps to keep them safer.  Gibbons move from tree to tree by swinging their arms between branches.  Gibbons are arboreal animals, which mean that they spend the majority of their lives in the trees.  Living in the trees has its advantages for the gibbon as the gibbon has plenty of food and is also a safe distance above ground from predators.

Locomotion: Gibbons main locomotor pattern is brachiating.  When gibbons brachiate, they use four fingers of their hands like a hook; they do not use their thumbs.  Gibbons are known for being very acrobatic and agile.  Gibbons lives are spent mainly in the trees.  It is very rare for a gibbon to be on the ground but when they are they walk bipedally (on two legs).  Gibbons do not know how to swim, so they avoid water.  Gibbons are also able to walk along small branches high up in the air and stretch their arms out to help them keep their balance. 

How locomotion has been influenced by its environment:
Gibbons’ locomotion concentrates on the use of the arms for propulsion through the trees. The most extreme expression of this skeletal adaptation in living primates is seen in the modern gibbon family. Their forelimbs are relatively elongated, they hold their trunk erect, and for the short periods that they spend on the ground they walk only on their hind limbs. Living in the trees has its advantage of safe distance from predators.

Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae)

Environment: The different subspecies of chimpanzees live in different parts of western and central Africa in 21 different countries, from the Atlantic coast to well inland. Chimpanzee’s habitats vary, but include dry savannas, evergreen rainforests, swamp forests, dry woodland and grasslands.  To be able to live in all different types of habitats chimpanzees have to be very adaptable.  Chimpanzees live in large communities ranging anywhere from 10-100.  Chimpanzees usually sleep in the trees as well, employing nest of leaves.

Locomotion: Chimpanzees usually walk using all fours (on the soles of feet and the knuckles of their hands). They can walk upright (when they need to use their arms to carry something), but usually don't. Chimps are also very good at climbing trees, where they spend much of their time, including when they sleep. They can swing from branch to branch in the trees.

How locomotion has been influenced by its environment:
Chimpanzee: locomotion trait has been adapted to the environment.  Chimpanzees are primates that can adapt to their environment really quickly.  The ways they move adjust to where they are living.  Chimpanzees are able to walk on all fours or if they need to carry food or something else they are able to walk on two of their limbs.  Chimpanzees are also able to climb trees and suspend themselves from branches.  The chimpanzee’s locomotion trait works to their advantage since they are able to adapt easily to any environment that they are in.  Chimpanzees are one of the few animal species that employ tools. They shape and use sticks to retrieve insects from their nests or dig grubs out of logs. They also use stones to smash open tasty nuts and employ leaves as sponges to soak up drinking water.

Lemur: Go to fullsize image

Spider monkey:
View Image

Baboon: View Image

Gibbon: View Image

Chimpanzee: View Image

4. Summarize

The level of influence the environment has on the expression of physical and behavioral traits is a huge impact. The primates adapted to the environment that they live. 
Primates occupy two major vegetational zones: tropical forest and woodland-grassland vegetational complexes. Each of these zones has produced in its resident primates the appropriate adaptations, but there is perhaps more diversity of bodily form among forest-living species than among inhabitants.
Even though most primates are quadrupedal to some degree, many primates employ more than one form of locomotion.  Vertical clinging and leaping is a form of locomotion seen in many prosimians. Brachiation is a form of suspensory locomotion in which the body is alternately supported under either forelimb. Some monkeys are termed semibrachiators, since they use a combination of leaping along with arm swinging.
Within the forest there are a number of ways of moving about. An animal can live on the forest floor or in the canopy, for instance, and within the canopy it can move in different ways. In the woodland savanna, which substantially demands adaptations for ground-living locomotion rather than those for tree-living, the possibilities are limited.

2 comments:

  1. I like your observation that most primates employ more than one type of locomotion. One misconception that students often get is that each primate only travels one way. Primates have as much variety in their movement as they do in their diet. In fact, humans may be one of the few that can really on move in one specific pattern.

    Good job. I enjoyed reading your post.

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  2. Very informative post! It was really interesting to learn about baboons' digits It was also interesting to learn how chimpanzees shape tools for their usage. I've never really thought about the locomotive patterns of different types of monkeys, so it was definitely interesting to learn that there are different types of locomotion and that different types of primates have different patterns- something I've never thought about before.

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