BCB705 Biodiversity: Chapter2 - Evolution of Biodiversity

Table of Contents

1. THE INFINITE VARIETY: THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
2. BUILDING BODIES: INVERTEBRATES OF THE OCEANS
3. THE FIRST FORESTS
4. THE SWARMING HORDES
5. THE CONQUEST OF THE WATER AND THE BIRTH OF THE VERTEBRATES
6. THE INVASION OF THE LAND
7. A WATER-TIGHT SKIN AND THE SHELLED EGG
8. LORDS OF THE AIR
9. EGGS, POUCHES AND PLACENTAS
10. THEME AND VARIATION
11. THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED
12. A LIFE IN THE TREES
    1. An ancestor to the primates
    2. The Ring-tailed lemur
    3. The male Ring-tailed lemur: The use of scent
    4. The Ring-tail: Time in trees
    5. Infant lemurs
    6. Sifakas
    7. The Indris
    8. The nocturnal lemurs
    9. The Aye-aye
    10. Competing with monkeys
    11. The Loris: Sign posting
    12. The Tarsier
    13. Monkeys: Sight is key
    14. Monkeys: The use of colourful displays and sound
    15. Monkeys: Anatomical features
    16. Scent in communication
    17. Marmosets
    18. Adapting to great weight
    19. Prehensile tails
    20. The adaptable Macaque monkey
    21. Macaques: Behavioural patterns
    22. Bi-pedalism
    23. The Orang Utan
    24. The Orang Utan: Supporting the great weight
    25. The Orang Utan: It's repertoire
    26. The Orang Utan: Solitude and size
    27. The Gibbons
    28. Gibbons: Family life
    29. Gorillas: The use of the arms
    30. Gorillas: Family groups
    31. Similarities between Gorillas and humans
    32. Gorillas: A placid existence
    33. Chimpanzees: Their diet
    34. Chimpanzees: Maternal support
    35. Chimpanzees: A friendly gesture
    36. Chimpanzees: The toolmakers
    37. New situations lead to greater change
    38. Test yourself
    39. Assignments
13. THE COMPULSIVE COMMUNICATORS

The Gibbons

The gibbons, also fruit-eaters, have followed a very different line of development. lncreasing size may have been the stimulus that made apes start to swing beneath branches but the ancestral gibbons subsequently exploited the new style of locomotion to the full by becoming smaller again. In the end they developed into even more accomplished acrobats than any balancing, branch running monkey. A gibbon in motion in the tree tops is one of the most glorious sights the tropical forest has to offer. With a supple grace that is breath-taking, they hurl themselves nine or ten metres across space, grabbing isolated branches and swinging themselves off again in another dazzling swoop through the air. The arms that enable them to be acrobats in the air are as long as their legs and torso combined, and if they do come to the ground, they have to be held above its head out of the way. Its versatile grasping primate hands have also become specialised at the cost of some of their manipulative abilities. Swinging at gibbon speed requires that the hands be used as hooks that can be latched swiftly on to a branch and then detached almost instantaneously. Thumbs get in the way, so they have moved down towards the wrist and become much reduced.

Lar Gibbon or White-handed Gibbon