Re: Dissecting the Aquatic Ape: Bipedalism
Gerrit Hanenburg (ghanenbu@inter.nl.net)
Sat, 10 Aug 1996 15:48:18 GMT
Paul Crowley <Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>On death, the body of a pongid or a gibbon will fall to the ground.
>This may well happen over a swamp, river or lakeside. Many deaths
>will happen when the animal tries, and fails, to bridge a river
>where the vegetation is a bit thin. So the bodies of pongids and
>gibbons will occasionally fossilize. Whereas a chimp or gorilla
>will never swim across a river or approach a lake and will usually
>crawl into the underbrush prior to death.
Bonobos frequently range in riverine and swamp forests.
Lowland Gorillas in the Ndoki Forest in Congo readily wade through
water and feed on starchy sedges in the swamps.
(see National Geographic July 1995 issue p.17 for a nice picture)
Gerrit.
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