New Great Ape Discovered?

DrLudicrous writes "CNN is running a story about sightings of an ape in central Africa that doesn't seem to fit the description of known apes. Pictures of the animal are rare, but it seems slightly taller than most gorillas, with a flatter face. One woman even reported seeing it walk upright on two legs. It has been hypothesized that the ape might be a new species, a subspecies, or perhaps a hybrid between two other species."

What is amazing is..

[SystematicPsycho]

If there was one, then there would of had to be thousands at the time the species was alive. It's amazing that only a piece of what could of been an entire species is ever found.
--

Yeti at home

[emptybody]

Have they taken foot casts to see if maybe they translate to the yeti casts seen previously?

maybe this is not so far fetched after all..

Ape Poo

[Davak]

We compared fecal samples from this unknown animal to the DNA of captive gorillas, bonobos, and chimps," Louis said. "Our preliminary data shows that the mitochondrial DNA is chimp-like."

But mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from the mother's side. So if this species or sub-species is a hybrid of a chimp mother and a gorilla father, current DNA would only identify information from the mother.

First of all... yuck.

If they can obtain enough cells from the poo to extract the mitochondrial DNA, why can't they PCR the rest of the DNA as well?

It must be extremely difficult to find just the cells and resulting DNA from this new ape-like creature. Poo must contain a ton of cells from all the injested material. I just don't understand why it's easier to extract the DNA from the mitochondria? Seems if you have the mitochondria... then you have the cells which should contain ALL the nuclear material.

Anyway... it's been a long time since my genetics/biochem courses.

Davak

good news for anthropologists

[PhysicsExpert]

Hopefully this will help the scientists who are crossbreeding intelligent apes in order to try and create another advanced species and uderstand how humans have evolved. Although they've increased the average ape intelligence by nearly 40% and even bread some individuals who are able to play simple games such as snap, they are unable to develop more advanced behavious such as speach and the concept of friendship.

.
It might raise some interesting questions about the morality of creating these creatures if they become truely sentient though.

Re:What is amazing is..

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of the behaviors mentioned seem to imply that an unique intellect as compared to other great apes is at work here. This creature could well be evidence of a shift from chimp lineage to a slightly different direction, not necessarily the hominid direction but toward being the dominant species in that ecosystem. They might be holdout soldiers from the Planet of the Apes, though, I'd be careful.

Oliver

[mrbuttle]

Perhaps an example of one living in captivity for the last 40 years is Oliver ( see here [n2.net] or here [texnews.com]. From the first link:

Oliver surfaced in the early 1970s, when he was acquired as a baby by trainers Frank and Janet Burger whose dog, chimp, pony and pig acts were once regularly featured on the Ed Sullivan Show, at Radio City Music Hall, and once even by dancer Gene Kelly. "He came in from Africa with three other chimps that one of Frank's brothers had sent over from the Congo. But this one we could never use. He was odd and the other chimps would have nothing to do with him,'' recalled Janet Burger, 69. But if Oliver was strange in appearance, and was shunned by other chimps, his intelligence and personality were also quite different from the other apes in the Burgers' entourage. "You could send him on chores. He would take the wheelbarrow and empty the hay and straw from the stalls. And when it was time to feed the dogs, he would get the pans, and mix the dog food for me. I'd get it ready and he'd mix it,'' she said. As he grew older, Oliver also acquired habits normally enjoyed only by humans, including a cup of coffee and a nightcap. "This guy, Oliver, he enjoyed sitting down at night and having a drink, and watching television. He'd mix his own. He'd pour a shot of whiskey and put some Seven-Up in there, stir it and drink it,'' she recalled.

Re:Oliver

[0111 1110]

Wow, that is an interesting link. This is all kind of cool and creepy. I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned De Loys Ape [n2.net]. A creepy and genuinely old photo, first published in a newspaper in the late 1920s I think.

why the shock and surprise?

[Wan2Be]

I've often wondered why people seem to think that since we've come into being, everything else should remain the same. Global warming? Hmmm, let's look at earth history and see that ice ages and global warmings happen with or without us. Changes in some animals? Hmmm, let's look at the paleontological record and see that species come and go and change - with or without us. Air pollution? Hmmm, Mt. St. Helen put more garbage in the air than the entire history of mankind. The earth doesn't care, people. It continues on - with us or without us.

Re:A loaf of bread, a twig of ants & thou...

[bill_mcgonigle]

those inversions would lead to cross-breeding sterility.

It seems sometimes [bbc.co.uk] nature has a way of overcoming [www.cbc.ca] scientific certainties.

Re:What is amazing is..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's always seemed odd to me that we are "up here" while apes and chimps are "down there" and other mammals kind of dribble down from that. Why nothing in-between?

This does not describe the situation at all; you're just anthropomorphizing (which is something your species does a lot of. :-)

Consider: the nearest relative of man is chimpanzee (measured by DNA similarity.) But guess what? The nearest relative of chimpanzee is man! So while the difference between, say, a chimp and a gorilla might look small to you compared to the yawning chasm between us and and any other species, in fact, that difference is greater than the difference between us and the chimp.

Re:What is amazing is..

[Ella the Cat]

From my last visit to the museum combined with reading, I recall that "species" is one of those concepts that works well most of the time, but gets fuzzy at the boundaries. So at sometime T we have N species, at T +100,000 years we have N+1 species, (assuming no extinctions in the meantime for this example) but pinning down exactly when N became N+1 isn't easy, or even -meaningful-. I may be wrong, but I do have the wit to realise it's a touchy subject in science.

Re:Oliver

[Anonymous Coward]

I tracked down an article on this:
"Technical note: Chromosomal and mtDNA analysis of Oliver" John J et. al. American Journal of Physical Anthropology Volume 105, Issue 3, 1998. Pages: 395-403

Sad to say, its almost certainly a chimp (really 48 chromosomes, cytogenetics) . Apparently, most of Oliver's teeth were removed at a young age, which altered his facial features, and his bipedalism was most likely conditioned as well. Still smart though...