The higher they live the further they fall: Traveling height and trauma among five species of primates.

Tara J. Chapman, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
Scott S. Legge, Macalester College
Sarah E. Johns, University of Kent at Canterbury - U.K.

Abstract

Trauma was studied in long bones (femur, tibia, fibula, humerus, radius and ulna) of 130 primate skeletons housed at the Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington, Kent. The specimens were from five different primate groups who are known to travel at various levels within the tree canopy; Pan troglodytes, Galagoides demidoff, Cercopithecus nictitans, Cercopithecus cephus and Piliocolobus badius. Out of the 130 skeletons examined, 16 had evidence of healed fractures with a significant increase in fracture frequencies for primates travelling in the higher parts of the canopy (Cercopithecus nictitans and Piliocolobus badius) compared with those travelling in the lower canopies (Cercopithecus cephus, Pan troglodytes and Galagoides demidoff). An association was also observed in the amount of healed fractures with relation to both locomotion and body weight.