Primates

Fossils found in Wyoming indicate that the line of monkey-like animals that apparently led to human evolution may have diverged from other primates 15 million years earlier than previously thought, researchers from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Denver Museum of Natural History reported last week in Nature. The researchers found four fossil skulls of a mouse-sized mammal they named Shoshonius in Wyoming's Wind River Basin.

I found Paul Dean's report on the outbreak of altruism in Los Angeles after the earthquake to be of great interest ("For Now, At Least, L.A. is the Epicenter of Good Deeds," Feb. 1). Actually, "random acts of senseless kindness" are basic to the very existence of society and always have been in humans and many other species. Such conduct is visible in chimpanzees and other primates, as described by Frans De Waals in his 1989 book, "Peacemaking Among the Primates." When a community such as Los Angeles becomes fragmented into separate sub-communities, it can still be held together by arrangements between the power brokers for the various factions.

In their efforts to accelerate the breeding of endangered species in captivity, the world's zoos have embarked on a controversial alliance with biomedical researchers to share scientific techniques developed through animal experimentation. The trend toward closer cooperation, which in some cases involves the sale or loan of surplus zoo animals to primate laboratories, has drawn strong criticism from animal rights groups.

Of all the things that distinguish humans and other primates -- thumbs, the ability to leap and forward-facing eyes -- it was the ability to grasp that evolved first, researchers reported in this week's issue of Science. A 56-million-year-old skeleton found in Wyoming shows that one of the earliest primate ancestors had an opposable big toe, allowing it to creep to the outermost branches of trees for nuts and fruit. It also probably kept a sharp eye out to avoid becoming someone else's meal.

Chimps do it. Gorillas do it. Michael Phelps does it too. The exuberant dance of victory -- arms thrust toward the sky and chest puffed out at a defeated opponent -- turns out to be an instinctive trait of all primates -- humans included, according to research released Monday.

Strong support for the controversial theory that modern humans originated in Africa about 100,000 years ago and spread from there through Europe and Asia has been provided by a team headed by UCLA molecular biologist Verne N. Schumaker. The researchers studied the evolution of a protein that is the primary component of the low-density lipoproteins that transport cholesterol through the blood stream.

The monkey house was cool, dark and quiet on Friday afternoon. The only sounds were the wind rustling the palm fronds on trees behind the building and the tinkling of a nearby fountain. Min-Min and Rong-Rong, two rare Chinese golden monkeys on loan from the Chengdu Zoo in the Szechwan province of China, napped at the top of a mammoth tan jungle gym in their glass enclosure. Then the crowds came. "Why they don't wanna play?"

"Gratuitously rude" is how Anthony Lake's confirmation hearings as nominee for CIA director were described in a recent New Yorker. NBA coach Pat Riley reportedly fines his players for helping opponents--splayed on the court--to their feet. "Ultimate fighting," an alleged sport sometimes described as human cockfighting, is gaining popularity. (It's man-to-man combat in a cage that prohibits only eye-gouging and biting; choking and head-butting are encouraged.

Move over John Travolta, Hollywood has a new comeback tale--or, more accurately, tail. On movie screens, at least, 1995 was the year of the monkey, with primates grabbing a surprising share of roles--and branching out with starring parts in two 1996 titles. Whether sinister ("Outbreak"), homicidal ("Congo"), computer-generated ("Jumanji") or comic ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"), simians have rarely left the multiplex since last spring.

About 30 years ago, noted anthropologist Louis Leakey sent the first of three women to Africa and Asia to study primates in the wild. By learning how the primates lived and interacted, he hoped to find important clues to the lives of the first humans that would flesh out the skeletal picture provided by his own excavation of fossils in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania. In 1960, he sent Jane Goodall, then a naive 26-year-old with no college degree, to Tanzania.