ONTOGENY AND GROWTH OF HIGHER PRIMATES – A SOMATOMETRIC APPROACH

The studies on non-human primate growth and somatic development are still relatively rare, and there is no comprehensive longitudinal study. The methodical problems in this type of primate research seems to be the most important reason for this. Despite the effort to integrate research into anthropology and primatology, anthropological and primatological research is not sufficiently interconnected. The persistence of marked differences in methods and methodology in both disciplines of ontogenetic research is probably the cause of this. Numerous anthropological, biomedical and evolutionary studies have compared man and primates, including their ontogeny. However, there is no consistent framework for such comparative studies. Both human and non-human primate ontogeny have numerous specific as well as common features, but they are not defined by comparable quantitative data. The research project entitled "Complex study of postnatal ontogeny of higher primates – basic adaptive processes, social structure, and sexual dimorphism", co-ordinated by Václav Vančata (Grant Agency of the Czech Republic – grant project No. 206/93/1029), is the first part of a longitudinal study of higher primate ontogeny which should yield representative data on primate ontogeny. The main subject of the study is a captive group of Macaca mulatta living in the Primate Center of VÚFB Konárovice. Currently, there is a population of 169 macaques living in 8 groups with a semi-natural (aged) multimale social structure. New groups are created after weaning at approx. 4–8 months of life. Three groups of macaques (73 individuals) have been included in the longitudinal complex study to date. The measuring is done by Helena Zlámalová, who is the author of a modification of the standard anthropometric procedures for primates. Some modifications are very specific, and the technique of measuring is different from that of analogical anthropometric measurements in man. Standardisation of the position of the body and individual segments was the first and main task of using somatometry methods in primates. We have measured 48 metrical traits: body mass, body height, sitting height, 9 dimensions of the head, and 15 traits of the upper limbs, 12 of the lower limbs and 9 of the trunk. Body height has never been measured in non-human primates, but is very important for the description of the linearity of the primate body and also for comparison of the ontogeny of non-human primates and man. The cross-secti