Japanese macaques in Post-glacial period

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

1) Study of Japanese macaque bones from archaeological sitesAnimal bone remains from archaeological sites, mainly of the Jomon period, in various locations in Japan were reviewed. Bones of Japan macaques have been found from 217 sites. These sites were plotted on maps according to the dates of the sites. The result of the survey v be a useful resource for future studies on the distribution of the Japanese macaques. As for the sites of the Nara Period and later, archaeological data was supplemented by information from historical texts. Morphological study of the teeth of these archaeologi macaque remains was also carried out. The result suggests that there was little morphological change in the Japanese macaques after Pleistocene. The study also suggests that the geographical variation among the modern Japanese macaque populations is small. Japan macaque bones from Jomon sites in Tanegashima Island was included in the study. Since attempts to extract DNA from archaeologi bones has begun … More only recently, we should still wait for enough data to be accumulated. It is an important step forward that we co establish the methods for DNA extraction from archaeological specimens. Study of the origin of Pleistocene Japanese macaque rema showed that they migrated to Japan quite long time ago.2) Study of modern Japanese macaquesMetrical analysis of the morphological variation of the skulls was carried out. In addition, the list of food plants used by Japanese macaques was completed. The changes in the distribution of the Japanese macaques were investigated based on the analysis of D-loop of DNA. This was the most successful project, which illustrated the special (peculiar?) nature of the distribution of the spec during the post-glacial period. Several different DNA haplotypes were found in modern Japanese macaque populations. The study revea that the population in the eastern Japan is clearly separated from that in the western Japan.In the course of this project, we could greatly increase the number of modern macaque samples, as well as locating the anci macaque specimens. These are the contributions that will be very useful for the future study of the Japanese macaques. Less