Understanding the coevolution of humans, simians, and the H.I.V. virus

You might already know that scientific types are in agreement that H.I.V. was originally spread to humans from monkeys and apes in Africa. The disease S.I.V. (Simian immunodeficiency virus) is prevalent in non-human primates, but unlike the human form of the disease, the mortality rate from S.I.V. is very low - only very weak primates die from this virus.

The theory goes that somewhere along the line, the virus passed from monkey to human, probably via some hunter that cut himself while butchering a monkey, and contaminated his (or her) self with infected blood. In the process, the virus mutated into H.I.V. and became much deadlier as a result.

The questions remain: when did the transmission/mutation event occur? And why are humans so vulnerable to a virus that other primates cope easily with?

New research suggests that African monkeys have been coevolving with the S.I.V. virus for much longer than previously thought, over 32,000 years. And even more primitive strains of the virus have been found in Madagascar lemurs (which we know from lecture are more similar to ancestral primates than old world monkeys and apes) suggesting that this virus may have been evolving with primates for millions of years.

Since H.I.V. crossed over from monkeys to humans relatively recently, our tragic susceptibility to this disease makes sense evolutionarily. However, understanding the evolutionary ecology and history of the virus may assist future efforts in treatment. (ARTICLE AT NY TIMES)

Non-human Languages

Someone in class last Thursday suggested (excuse me for paraphrasing) that possibly non-humans were limited in their communication to their immediate needs such as, "I'm hungry" or "Go away!" However, tons of research shows that even squirrels have a basic theory of mind (See this article on how common grey squirrels deceive each other by sending false signals)


Elephants, for example, are long-lived social animals that communicate with each other through trunk signals, olfactory cues, and low-frequency vibrations that travels miles without being detectable by human ears. researchers from Cornell University are making strides in compiling an "Elephant dictionary." I bet many of you have heard of elephant funerals, wherein members of a family will linger by the body of a dead relative for days, even returning regularly to the same spot year after year to visit the bones of the deceased. With relationships that last for decades of their long lives, do you think it's possible that elephants could be communicating sentiments more complex than their physical needs? (Click here for CBS article)

And on one more note, sign-language studies on apes have shown that while non-human primates appear to lack the capacity to master the intricacies of human communication, like grammar and syntax, they are able to conceptualize and convey higher levels of communication such as lying, joking, regret, and anticipation. Check out chapter one of "The Education of Koko" on Koko.org (Click Here) The rest of the site is cool too.

Chimpanzees play with "dolls"

When I was little, I played with a lot of toys handed down from my older brother: Pirate ships, Playmobil armies, cars, but my grandmother also provided me with three American Girl dolls. If you don't know about these, they are large high-quality girl-dolls from different periods of American history with plenty of historically-accurate outfits and accessories you can buy. My favorite was Kirsten, the Swedish immigrant.

There's an open debate about why girls plays with dolls and boys play with trucks, whether this is positive or negative behavior, and whether this is natural or socially induced (why, for example, did grandma buy me dolls and doll-dresses and doll furniture instead of toy microscopes and model airplanes?)

In 2002, a study on Vervet monkeys presented the possibility that these gender-roles are more natural than many would like to admit. In the study, female vervets preferred "feminine" toys like dolls, while males went for trucks and cars, with no clear difference in "gender neutral" toys which I guess are like blocks or something. (Click for article)

HOWEVER! Field data collected from wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park suggests that juvenile chimps play with sticks in a way very similar to how human children play with dolls, cradling them and building nests for them to "sleep" in at night. Furthermore, both males and females play in this manner. (HERE) Does this have implications for human behavior?

Looks like the debate is still open to interpretation.

Language, Culture, and Empathy in Chimpanzees

This is a cool overview article on the complexity of chimpanzee social and cognitive behavior. One of the more interesting points is that chimpanzees are able to outperform humans in some memory tests, about recalling series of numbers, which might suggest that a trade-off for language is immediate memory.

They also talk about tool use and empathy, such as for Knuckles the chimp with cerebral palsy (above) who is treated with consideration even by the high-ranking males of his social group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17chimp.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2