MetaFilter posts tagged with primates

Sign of the time, so out of line

Joe Beese — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:35:33 -0800

National Geographic's photographic history of monkeys in space.

Why there are still monkeys

homunculus — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:15:26 -0800

Why are there still monkeys?

Pyow-pyow

chuckdarwin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:42:28 -0800

A troop of putty-nosed monkeys in west Africa has been found to use a rudimentary language.

Illustrations of primates

salvia — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:31:35 -0800

Look at that tail! Stephen Nash has illustrated the most endangered primates (image gallery: part 1, part 2) -- so faithfully over the years that one now bears his name. The just-released "Primates in Peril" report has full profiles of each animal, along with all of Nash's illustrations (including those replaced by photos in the gallery above -- don't miss the sumatran orangutan!).

The X Finger

phrontist — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:06:03 -0800

The X Finger a prosthetic for digital amputees.

A Pliocene love that dare not speak its name?

homunculus — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:19:13 -0800

How Do You Get Crabs From A Gorilla? One of many little evolutionary cases Carl Zimmer tackles in The Parasite Files.

Primate Peace

semmi — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:06:43 -0800

A Natural History of Peace. Humans like to think that they are unique, but the study of other primates has called into question the exceptionalism of our species. So what does primatology have to say about war and peace? Contrary to what was believed just a few decades ago, humans are not "killer apes" destined for violent conflict, but can make their own history.

Now show me how to do the thing with the termites and the stick.

Eothele — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:12:00 -0800

It's official, humans are dumber than chimps. These guys show (at the NY Times level) that human kids will over-imitate every ritualized nuance modeled for them, whereas chimp kids just wanna get the damn cookie out of the box. Their website also describes more of their studies.

Talking Primates with Frans de Waal

veronica sawyer — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:44:23 -0800

Talking Primates with Frans de Waal: Frans de Waal is a primatologist who's challenged male supremacy in evolution, the belief that monkeys don't perceive images as we do, and the idea that they don't possess emotions ascribed to humans. His new book, Our Inner Ape, posits that the human duality of good and evil is in fact something we've inherited directly from primates.

Primate-on-Primate Assault

digaman — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:55:32 -0800

Don't piss off the chimpanzees. Really. They'll chew your **lls and face off.

New Monekys and Species this year

Blake — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:43:56 -0800

A new species of monkey turned up in India [NYTimes or Rediff]. Though the monkeys are new to science, people in the area are quite familiar with them. They call them "mun zala" or deep forest monkeys. It's a stocky, short-tailed, brown-haired creature they have named the Macaca munzala, or Arunachal macaque. Maybe not that excting for those of us not excited by, uh, mokeys, but did you know this year there have been other new things discovered? A new species of plec and one of Neon goby, even more exciting, a new electric fish was found as well. A quick search turned up dozens of new fish this year. ABC News says 178 new things found in the oceans this year alone, raising the number of life-forms found in the world's oceans to about 230,000. The big question is, of course, how many of those will Taste Like Chicken? The bad news on the little critter front is 1 in 10 bird species could vanish within 100 years, and I bet they all taste like chicken.

Kingacus Kongnificus

stbalbach — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 22:15:45 -0800

Six foot tall ferocious lion killing species of ape discovered in jungles of the Congo. Or they could be giant chimpanzees. Or half-breeds. The discovery has baffled scientists.

Primate Poker

bashos_frog — Sat, 22 May 2004 18:10:24 -0800

I'll raise you 5 bananas. What do Primate Programmers do in their off hours? Using David Sklansky's theorys to play Texas Hold'em online. As a poker-playing, programming, primate myself, I can relate.

Primates as Programmers

SandeepKrishnamurthy — Wed, 31 Dec 2003 07:39:14 -0800

Primates as Programmers. New firm breaks the mold. Hires primates as programmers leading to significant cost savings!

Bye, bye Floquet!

samelborp — Mon, 24 Nov 2003 08:17:31 -0800

Copito de Nieve, a.k.a. Floquet de Neu, the only known white gorilla dies at age 37. It was one of the symbols of my hometown Barcelona. Snowflake was the star of the Barcelona Zoo, he always surrounded by female gorillas (not surprisingly he produced 22 offspring but none of them albino) and was famous because of his bad mood and tendency to throw things around. He was finally put down today as his skin cancer condition was aggravating. There it goes a no small part of my childhood (although I preferred the dolphins, always so cheerful)... Snowflake no longer lives with Virunga and Coco... (sigh!)

Little Joe Young

soyjoy — Tue, 30 Sep 2003 08:37:56 -0800

Little Joe waited at the bus stop before continuing his bid to escape the authorities. The 300-pound gorilla had just broken out of his Franklin Park Zoo enclosure for the second time in two months, overcoming a newly-installed electric fence, injuring two people and terrifying others. The gorilla was hit with four tranquilizer darts but had managed to pull at least one of them out. Little Joe's namesake reminds us that we've known for at least 70 years that big apes in the middle of cities can cause major problems. Why are they still there?

Orangutan culture

jdroth — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 10:53:13 -0800

Cultured Apes: According to a study published in today's issue of the journal Science, orangutans have been passing on a shared culture for generations (free registration required to view entire study). To what degree are animals intelligent? Are primates more intelligent than other animals? What about crows and ravens? (My favorite subject of animal intelligence studies is still Koko the gorilla.)

MAYORBOB — Wed, 12 Dec 2001 19:58:58 -0800

Cloning is not monkey business. According to this article there is something fundamentally amiss in the cloning of primates. Do I sense some hot air going out of the balloons of the guys who predicted they'd be cloning humans in the near future?

walrus — Tue, 16 Oct 2001 04:56:25 -0800

Monkeys are capable of abstract reasoning according to recent research, which may have "profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals."

Just so long as there are enough bananas to go round, it's OK by me ...

stbalbach — Sun, 01 Jul 2001 11:47:35 -0800

Make love not war. Amoung humans closest relatives, these monkeys solve conflict by makeing love. A lot. Female dominate society they have no homicide and tensions in the group are non existent.

snakey — Wed, 29 Nov 2000 09:32:16 -0800

Tale of the Coke Monkeys. GAH! Coke may lead to Cannabis! It's Salon, but it's hilarious.