Pygmy chimpanzees show few individual differences in their blood groups (unlike P.The only other animals with some form of VEN cells are whales, dolphins, and elephants, all animals with large brains and highly evolved social awareness, including empathy.Neither gorillas nor chimpanzees have a VEN brain cell organized in clusters like those of humans and bonobos.VENs help regulate complex social interactions requiring knowledge of other individuals' mental state.Bonobos share with humans a similar pattern of distribution of brain neuron cells called VENS (also called spindle cells or Von Economo Neurons).Of all the great apes, bonobos are the most human-like in their leg length.Bonobos are quite similar in overall body size, cranial capacity, and lower limb length to an ancestral hominid, nicknamed Lucy, who lived some 3 million years ago in Africa.More body weight (heavier muscles) in lower legs of bonobos.More centrally positioned opening in skull for spinal cord (foramen magnum).Compared to chimpanzees, bonobos have body characteristics that are better for bipedal or upright posture: (Myers Thompson 2002).Bonobos have shorter upper limbs and longer lower limbs (Zihlmann 1996).In overall size, bonobos are not smaller than chimpanzees (most anatomical measurements overlap) but there are differences in proportion:.Nostrils are "thick-walled" and more gorilla-like.Lips are lighter, often reddish colored. Chimps' ears stand out more from the head.Ears smaller and almost completely covered by cheek whiskers.More slender build, narrower chest, bone and muscle of lower limbs is heavier.Head is more rounded, with smaller ridges above eyes, less developed muzzle, less jaw protrusion.Brow ridges and facial bone structure are less pronounced.Baldness does occur, although "perhaps later in life" than in other chimpanzees.Hair on top of head appears to be parted down the middle.Many adults retain the white rump tuft common to infants.Black face, ears, palms and soles of feet individuals in managed care may have lighter pigmentation."One of the other tragedies of this chimpanzee is it seems to have grown up largely in isolation from other chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are very social creatures," Marks said. Marks disputes Stibbe's statement, saying that in nature chimps do have guardians, or other chimps to watch their backs. "But since he was abducted into an alien environment, traumatized and locked up in an enclosure, it did become necessary for me to act on his behalf to secure the donation money for him and to avoid his deportation." "In his home in the African jungle, he would have been well able to look after himself without a guardian," Stibbe said. And women can call their lawyers just as readily as men can."Įven still, activist Stibbe says the legal standing is the only way to ensure the chimp's survival. We call our lawyers instead of bearing our canine teeth. "That difference doesn't exist in humans. "Male chimpanzees have canine teeth much larger than female chimpanzees," Marks told LiveScience. Considered our closest living relatives, chimps behave a lot like us and even share about 96 percent of their DNA sequence with humans. And behaviors once thought exclusive to us, such as tool-making, exist in many non-human primates. "This case is about the fundamental question: Who is the bearer of human rights? Who is a person according to the European Human Rights Charter?"įor some scientists, the question of humanness is a tricky one, as no single characteristic separates humans from every other animal. "His life depends on this decision," Eberhart Theuer, the animal rights group's legal advisor, told the Evening Standard, a tabloid newspaper in London. The rulings did not address whether a chimpanzee could be declared a person. The case comes after Austria's Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in January, which rejected a request to appoint the chimp with a legal guardian. The appeal has been filed in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. (Under Austrian law, only humans are entitled to have guardians.) That way, Stibbe says she can become the primate's legal guardian if the bankrupt animal sanctuary where Matthew lives closes. Animal rights activist and teacher Paula Stibbe, along with the Vienna-based Association Against Animal Factories, says she wants the chimpanzee, named Matthew Hiasl Pan, declared a person.
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