Comparison And Contrast The Evolution Of Baboons And Bonobos

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Out of the old-world apes, comes two evolutionary different creatures. One holding its evolution to its harsh environment of both Africa and Arabia and the other to the dense forest and swamplands of Africa. These creatures’ common names are called, baboons and bonobos. Although they both have common names spelled pretty much the same way, they are completely different creatures of Africa. Baboons scientific name is Papio Hamadryads and bonobos scientific name is Pan Paniscus. Using the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History website, we can compare baboons and bonobos teeth and skulls. Baboons and bonobos although they are different organisms, both share the 2.1.2.3 dental formula, fully developed eye sockets, relatively large sized …show more content…

This is because temporalis muscle has been strengthened. Baboons have a diastema present between the incisors and the canine whereas bonobos do not. Furthermore, baboons have evolved to live in a food scarce environment that has lead them to develop heightened olfactory senses as is seen in their elongated snout. This betters their chances of finding food when foraging and lessens the time spent foraging. Bonobos do not show an elongated snout and therefore, they do not require heightened olfactory senses. This is because bonobos live in dense forest and do not experience the same harsh environment of baboons. Bonobos however show some human like features that baboons do not. The position of the foramen magnum, in bonobos, is shockingly close to the human’s position which suggest that bonobos can walk bipedally. This means bonobos can walk on two legs whereas baboons cannot or do not prefer to walk on two legs. Baboons have large canines suggesting a male-male competition or Polygyny and Ambivalent Polygamy society. Meaning they live in societies where there is a high king that will have many queens. Bonobos have small canines suggesting no male-male competition and perhaps there is a Monomorphism between male and

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