Doran D M
Department of Anthropology, SUNY at Stony Brook 11794, USA.
J Hum Evol. 1997 Apr;32(4):323-44. doi: 10.1006/jhev.1996.0095.
The African apes are a group of closely related taxa that differ considerably in body size. In spite of the large body size difference, the African apes are similar in many aspects of their morphology; it has been suggested that most of their differences result from selection for these body size differences (Shea, 1988). The influence of body size on locomotion has been well-documented, but what is less clear, is whether these behavioral differences occur throughout ontogeny because few studies have directly addressed the influence of ontogeny (and changing body size) on locomotion. This study documents the ontogeny of mountain gorilla locomotion and compares it with that of chimpanzees in order to consider how changing body size during ontogeny influences locomotion in the two species. Results indicate that gorilla locomotor development is greatly accelerated compared with chimpanzees, and that much of the interspecific variation in age can be explained by body size. When chimpanzees and gorillas are at similar sizes (although widely disparate ages), they perform very similar locomotor activities. However, it is incorrect to view a gorilla as a faster growing and ultimately larger chimpanzee. Throughout ontogeny, gorillas have broader scapulae and relatively shorter phalanges and metacarpals than chimpanzees (Susman, 1979; Shea, 1981; Jungers & Susman, 1984; Inouye, 1992) which are associated differences in mountain gorilla and chimpanzee suspensory behavior; gorillas never show as high an incidence of suspensory behavior as chimpanzees during ontogeny.
非洲猿是一组亲缘关系密切的分类单元，它们在体型上有很大差异。尽管体型差异巨大，但非洲猿在形态学的许多方面都很相似；有人认为，它们的大多数差异是由对这些体型差异的选择导致的（谢伊，1988年）。体型对运动的影响已有充分记录，但不太清楚的是，这些行为差异是否在个体发育过程中一直存在，因为很少有研究直接探讨个体发育（以及不断变化的体型）对运动的影响。本研究记录了山地大猩猩运动的个体发育过程，并将其与黑猩猩的进行比较，以探讨个体发育过程中体型的变化如何影响这两个物种的运动。结果表明，与黑猩猩相比，大猩猩的运动发育大大加速，而且两个物种在年龄上的许多种间差异可以用体型来解释。当黑猩猩和大猩猩体型相似时（尽管年龄相差很大），它们的运动活动非常相似。然而，将大猩猩视为生长更快、最终体型更大的黑猩猩是不正确的。在整个个体发育过程中，大猩猩的肩胛骨比黑猩猩更宽，指骨和掌骨相对更短（苏斯曼，1979年；谢伊，1981年；荣格斯和苏斯曼，1984年；井上，1992年），这些差异与山地大猩猩和黑猩猩的悬吊行为有关；在个体发育过程中，大猩猩悬吊行为的发生率从未像黑猩猩那样高。
