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Brief communication: Locomotor limb preferences in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Implications for morphological asymmetries in limb bones
Author(s) -
Hopkins William D.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20834
Subject(s) - forelimb , troglodytes , primate , population , laterality , biology , pongidae , bipedalism , anatomy , psychology , neuroscience , zoology , medicine , ecology , environmental health
Understanding the evolutionary origins of hemispheric specialization remains a topic of considerable interest in a variety of scientific disciplines. Whether nonhuman primates exhibit population‐level limb preferences continues to be a controversial topic. In this study, limb preferences for ascending and descending locomotion were assessed as a means of examining the hypothesis that asymmetries in forelimb bones might be attributed to asymmetries in posture. The results indicated that captive chimpanzees showed a population‐level leftward asymmetry in descending locomotion but no group bias for ascending locomotion. The results are consistent with previous behavioral studies in captive chimpanzees as well as studies on skeletal asymmetries of the forelimbs of chimpanzees. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.