Objectives: Baboons possess sophisticated physical and social cognitive abilities; hence, the lack of evidence to date of large-scale behavioral variation in these primates is puzzling. Here we studied a candidate for such variation—the stripping of barkfrom Acacia robusta trees for consumption of the sap and soft tissue underneath—in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.Materials and Methods: We surveyed an are...
Objectives: Baboons possess sophisticated physical and social cognitive abilities; hence, the lack of evidence to date of largescale behavioral variation in these primates is puzzling. Here we studied a candidate for such variation—the stripping of bark from Acacia robusta trees for consumption of the sap and soft tissue underneath—in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Materials and Methods: We surveyed an ar...
Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique offers an unparalleled setting for the study of primate adaptations to complex and highly dynamic environments. Located at the southern end of the East African Rift System, Gorongosa hosts a mosaic of forests, woodlands, grasslands, swamps, rivers, and a major lake, Lake Urema, which fluctuates extensively with the seasonal cycles (Figures 1 and 2).1 Renowned biolog...
Most authors recognize six baboon species: hamadryas (Papio hamadryas), Guinea (Papio papio), olive (Papio anubis), yellow (Papio cynocephalus), chacma (Papio ursinus), and Kinda (Papio kindae). However, there is still debate regarding the taxonomic status, phylogenetic relationships, and the amount of gene flow occurring between species. Here, we present ongoing research on baboon morphological diversity in Go...
The East African Rift System (EARS) has played a central role in our understanding of human origins and vertebrate evolution in the late Cenozoic of Africa. However, the distribution of fossil sites along the rift is highly biased towards its northern extent, and the types of paleoenvironments are primarily restricted to fluvial and lacustrine settings. Here we report the discovery of the first fossil sites fro...