Apes

A 9.5-million-year-old, near-complete skeleton found in Spain belongs to a creature related to the modern orangutan and helps plug a gap in the knowledge of ape development, according to Spanish researchers. The team found part of a skull of Dryopithecus laietanus at the Can Llobateres site near Sabadell in northeast Spain several years ago, and have now found other bones there.

When Chloe the gibbon and her mate Ivan hear trucks rumbling along nearby streets and helicopters clacking overhead, they dart and leap erratically. Betty, Truman, Sasha and Tuk soon join the frenzy, along with 28 other apes. But the residents at the Gibbon Conservation Center aren't just monkeying around. "It's a stressful situation for them," said Alan Mootnick, founder of the nonprofit center just outside Santa Clarita. "They don't know which direction to turn.

Why did humans evolve to walk upright? It turns out that humans walking on two legs use only a quarter of the energy that chimpanzees use while knuckle-walking on four limbs, researchers reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The chimps, on average, also used as much energy using two legs as they did when they used all four limbs.

Toddlers as young as 2½ have better social skills than humans' nearest primate relatives, chimpanzees, and display an innate "cultural intelligence" unique to humans, according to a study published today in the journal Science.

They don't bring along an umbrella or sunglasses that might be needed later, but researchers say that apes, like people, can plan ahead. Orangutans and bonobos were able to figure out which tool would work to retrieve grapes, and they were able to remember to bring that tool along hours later, researchers reported in the current issue of the journal Science.

The National Zoo has closed its Great Ape House and outdoor yard for several weeks after a test of a gorilla's lungs suggested the possibility he had tuberculosis. Zoo officials said the facility was ordered shut as a precaution while they awaited results of further testing. Peper Long, a spokeswoman for the zoo, identified the gorilla as 4-year-old Kwame. He is part of a colony of four western lowland gorillas that are highly popular with visitors to the zoo.

A 13-million-year-old fossil of an ape, discovered in Spain, is from the last probable common ancestor of humans and great apes, Spanish researchers reported this week in the journal Science. A team of fossil sleuths unearthed an animal with a body like an ape, fingers like a chimp and the upright posture of humans. The ancient ape bridges the gap between earlier, primitive animals and later, modern creatures.

Whether it's using leaves to daintily dab at food dripping from their chins or saying goodnight with loud, squeaky kisses, orangutans appear to have culture -- learned behavioral innovations that spread among social groups and to succeeding generations. Once thought to be the hallmark of man, cultural transmission has been detected in chimps, which evolved 7 million years ago.

Mias is a big, noisy ape that chomps melon rinds like potato chips and flings plastic buckets around when he's bored. Yet one whiff of rose oil, and the bruising orangutan wilts, becoming as docile as a lamb. He pushes his nose through the cage and lets Rhonda Pietsch gently daub it with a bit of rosy scent, then inhales dreamily. "They really look forward to this," said Pietsch, an animal keeper at the Denver Zoo. "Smell is such an important part of their lives."