Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
Order: Primates
Family: Cercopithecidae
Subfamily: Colobinae
Genus: Pygathrix
Species: Pygathrix nemaeus
Also known as the Red-shanked Douc Langur...
The species Pygathrix nemaeus is actually composed of three subspecies. The red-shanked douc Langur, the black-shanked douc langur (P. nemaeus nigripes) and the grey-shanked douc langur (P. nemaeus cinerea). They are found in Vietnam and Cambodia and reside in tropical rain forests. They are an aboreal species and leaves constitute approximately 80% of their diet. In order to process the leaves they have a sacculated stomach containing bacteria to break down the cellulose. They them use RNASE1B to break down the bacteria. RNASE1B evolved via a duplication of pancreatic RNASE1 and contains several mutations that allow it to work more efficiently in acidic conditions of the stomach. The duplication event occured about four million years ago.
Red-shanked douc langurs are a diurnal species and travel in groups of 4-14, although they have been found in groups as large as 50. The groups tend to be multi-male multi-female with each having their own dominance hierarchy.
For more info go here (pdf) and here.
Comments
misspelling...they "them" use; they "then" use. Six sentences in on the first page.
Posted by: pitts | July 5, 2007 8:50 AM