*Pictures were taken from the Fort Worth Zoo website.

Family Pongidae

• large size, males are about twice the size of females in each species
  • males 42-175 kg
  • females 33-98 kg
• primarily forest primates
• herbivores
• robust canines and broad premolars
• use quadrumanous climbing and move to some extent terrestrially
• short trunks
• broad chest
• long arms, hands, and feet
• births and gestation similar to humans

    a.    Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus and P. pygmaeus abelli (Orangutan)

  
• dental characteristics
  • cheek teeth
  • low, flat cusps
  • crenulated occlusal surfaces
  • large upper central incisors
  • small peg-like upper laterals
• crania characteristics
  • high, rounded braincase
  • poorly developed brow ridges
  • deep face with small, closely set orbits
  • prognathic snout with large convex premaxilla
  • deep mandible with high ascending ramus
• limb specialized for suspensory climbing
  • long fore limbs
  • long hook-like hands
  • long curved fingers
  • short, mobile hindlimbs
  • hand-like feet with long curved digits
• move quadrapedally in trees and on the ground
• extremely sexual dimorphic
• agressive, violent mating
• found at higher elevations, more common in mountain regions

b.    Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, P. troglodytes troglodytes, and P. troglodytes verus (Chimpanzee)

• dental
  • broad incisors
  • cheek teeth with broad basins
  • low, rounded cusps
• crania
  • skull shape is similar to a gorilla
  • shallow face and mandible
  • not much visibility of extensive development of sagittal and nuchal crests
• limbs
  • narrow hands and feet with slender, curved digits
  • forelimbs and hindlimbs are similar in length
• utilize nature's tools; sticks, leaves, and stones to carry out daily activities
• frugivores, also eat social insects and smaller mammals (including other primates)
• quadrupedal, knuckle-walking terrestrially and quadrapedal/suspensory locomotion arborally

  c.      P. paniscus (Bonobo)

• dark face
• gracile skull
• slender limbs
• long hands and feet
• no sexual dimorphism
• located in central Africa, south of the Zaire River
• move quadrupedal terrestrially and bipedal/quadrupdsl suspensory arborially
• frugivores, also eat small ungulates, insects, snakes and fish

 d.      Gorilla gorilla gorilla, G. gorilla beringei, and G. gorilla graueri (Gorilla)

Low mountain gorilla

• largest living primate
  • females 70-90 kg
  • males up to 200 kg
• one of our closest primate relatives
• dental characteristics
  • developed crests in molars
  • large, tusk-like canines
  • small incisors
• crania characteristics
  • long snouts
  • pronounced brow ridges
  • males have well-developed sagittal and nuchal crests
• limb charateristics
  • long forelimbs
  • broad hands with large pollex and dermal ridges on dorsal surface
  • short, broad trunk
  • wide thorax
  • broad, basin-like pelvis
  • short hindlimbs
  • broad feet
  • hallux is adducted and connected to other digits by webbing; resembles human footprint
• mostly terrestrial movement
• quadrupedal walking and running
  • knuckle-walking = support their weight on the 3rd and 4th digits of their curled hands
• intense competition between males for control of a troop, take overs usually include infanticide