Dry Habitat Chimpanzee Ecology: Implications for the Evolution of Bipedalism

作为灵长目中与我们关系最近的动物，黑猩猩是了解我们最早的祖先南方古猿行为的重要来源。 然而，黑猩猩并不是完美的类似物，因为南方古猿的栖息地比现存黑猩猩的栖息地更干燥，所有的黑猩猩研究站都在相对潮湿的栖息地。 在这个项目中，我的目标是开始一个新的研究地点，黑猩猩生活在一个不寻常的草原/河流森林栖息地在塞姆利基山谷野生动物保护区，乌干达。 这项研究的重点是两足动物的起源。 研究人员对导致两足行走的选择性力量或其进化过程几乎没有达成一致。 早期的研究表明，两足动物是为了适应以小树上的小果实为食而进化出来的，这些小树主要生长在干旱地区。 虽然黑猩猩不是习惯性的两足动物，但它们偶尔也会进行这种形式的运动。 由于黑猩猩已经习惯了人类在塞姆利基的观察，我将观察它们两足行走的背景，以更好地理解为什么我们的类人猿祖先首先采用这种不寻常的运动行为。 对这些黑猩猩的研究将确保它们的生存，并帮助我们了解南方古猿的进化。

As our closest relatives in the primate order, chimpanzees are an important source of insight into the behavior of our earliest ancestors, the australopithecines. Chimpanzees are imperfect analogues, however, because australopithecines lived in drier habitats than those in which extant chimpanzees are typically found. All working chimpanzee research stations are in relatively wet habitats. In this project I aim to start a new study site on chimpanzees that live in an unusual grassland/riverine- forest habitat in the Semliki Valley Wildlife Reserve, Uganda. The particular focus of this research is the origin of bipedalism. There is little agreement among researchers about the selective forces that resulted in bipedalism, or about the course of its evolution. Earlier research suggested that bipedalism evolved as an adaptation to feeding on small fruits found in diminutive trees, trees found mostly in dry areas. Although not habitual bipeds, chimpanzees do engage in this form of locomotion on occasion. As chimpanzees are habituated to human observation at Semliki, I will observe the contexts of their bipedalism to understand better why our ape-like ancestor first adopted this unusual locomotor behavior. Study of these chimpanzees will assure their survival as well as helping us understand the evolution of the australopithecines.