9781422276372

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

the basis of a single skull from Gabon, was the gorilla confirmed as a separate genus from the chimpanzee, although fossil records and bio- chemical research show that chimpanzees are the gorillas’ closest relative. In the 18th century Carl Linnaeus, the first serious student of classification, devised a system that classified animals first by class, order, and family, then genus and species. Like all animals classed as mammals, goril- las are warm-blooded, have hair, are nursed by mother’s milk, and go through a rather long childhood. Humans, whales, elephants, dolphins, horses, cats, monkeys, and apes are all part of the mammal class. In 1758 Linnaeus officially recognized the close rela- tionship among humans, monkeys, and apes and devised the order name primate to encompass them all and to denote their high ranking in the animal kingdom. The primate order contains 11 families, including lemurs,

Scientists do not know exactly how long gorillas have existed, but a Roman explorer is believed to be the first person in Western civilization ever to see a gorilla in the year 5  b . c . Given our current theories of evolution, it makes sense that relatives of the gorilla (primates) have been recorded in fossils that are dated at about 70 million years ago. Fossils also show that relatives of apes diverged from the pri- mate line about 20 million years ago. Several million years ago the chimpanzee and gorilla lines had already separated from each other, and the orangutan line even earlier than that. The Primates Throughout the 18th century there remained a considerable amount of confusion in distin- guishing among orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. Because of its remote habitat in Asia, the orangutan was the first to be recog- nized as a distinct genus. Not until 1847, on

FOLLOWING PAGE: Gorillas use their hands to collect and prepare their food, to carry their young, to play, and to build nests. Some gorillas in captivity have even been taught to communicate, using the hand signals of American Sign Language, developed for the hearing impaired.

Male gorillas average 5.5 feet (1.7 m) and 400 pounds (182 kg) and can spread their arms about 8 feet (2.4 m) across. They can reach 6 feet (1.8 m) in height and 500 pounds (227 kg) in weight.

Gorillas, like other mammals, are warm-blooded, are covered with fur or hair, are nursed by mother’s milk, and have a rather long childhood. Other mammals include humans, whales, elephants, dolphins, lemurs, monkeys, marmosets, great apes, and many other kinds of creatures.

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