Primate Craniofacial Function and Biology

Book review: Primate Craniofacial Function and Biolog

Introduction to the Developmental Contextualism Surrounding Identity Vulnerability and the Emergence of Depression and Anxiety

According to Cicchetti and Toth (1998), the integration of inadequate biological, ecological, socioemotional, cognitive, and self-representational forces may foster psychopathological organization. These forces comprise developmental contextualism. Contextualism can be visualized as a bidirectional relationship between the individual and the context (Lemer, 2002). In other words, internal and external forces interact with one another as they are affecting the organism. Ecology, socioemotionality, cognition, and biology interact to form the self-representational sense of self or “other” source. This other source is the subjective experience of the organism and emerges as a force in and of itself and influences superceding interactions between ecology, cognition, socioemotionality, and biology. The self-representational sense of self is an internal experience of the self and is where vulnerability to the outside world develops. Vulnerability is experienced subjectively as having a weak self-structure and being easily triggered by unclear or negative contextual variables. Therefore, it seems reasonable to suggest that security in sense of self, or degree of self-integration may dictate vulnerability to common psychopathology such as depression and anxiety (Dombeck, 1995). In leau of the potential relationship between these variables, this particular study assessed how identity vulnerability, depression, and anxiety related to one another through self-reported measures. There was an indication of comorbidity suggesting that identity vulnerability is an underlying factor in the development and experience of depression and anxiety

Primate Craniofacial Function and Biology

Book review: Primate Craniofacial Function and Biolog

Paranthropus boisei: Fifty Years of Evidence and Analysis

Paranthropus boisei is a hominin taxon with a distinctive cranial and dental morphology. Its hypodigm has been recovered from sites with good stratigraphic and chronological control, and for some morphological regions, such as the mandible and the mandibular dentition, the samples are not only relatively well dated, but they are, by paleontological standards, reasonably-sized. This means that researchers can trace the evolution of metric and nonmetric variables across hundreds of thousands of years. This paper is a detailed1 review of half a century’s worth of fossil evidence and analysis of P. boisei and traces how both its evolutionary history and our understanding of its evolutionary history have evolved during the past 50 years

The Importance of Fallback Foods in Primate Ecology and Evolution

The role of fallback foods in shaping primate ranging, socioecology, and morphology has recently become a topic of particular interest to biological anthropologists. Although the use of fallback resources has been noted in the ecological and primatological literature for a number of decades, few attempts have been made to define fallback foods or to explore the utility of this concept for primate evolutionary biologists and ecologists. As a preface to this special issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology devoted to the topic of fallback foods in primate ecology and evolution, we discuss the development and use of the fallback concept and highlight its importance in primatology and paleoanthropology

The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boisei

Many people assume that OH 5, the type specimen of Paranthropus boisei, collected in 1959, was the first evidence of that taxon to be found, but OH 3, recovered in 1955, predated the discovery of OH 5 by four years. Thus, Paranthropus boisei recently celebrated the equivalent of its fiftieth birthday. This review marks that milestone by examining the way our understanding of this taxon has changed during its fifty, or so, year history

Session B4: New Insights into Schooling Behavior in Response to Flow

Abstract: Gregarious behaviour is found throughout the animal kingdom. Although many fish species live in groups during a certain period of their life cycle, rarely has this collective behaviour been incorporated in fish passage studies, which tend to focus on individual behaviour of target species. Near fish passes, local hydrodynamics are highly variable, potentially affecting school cohesion. Since schooling has several drivers, such as antipredatory benefits and energy savings mechanisms, a loss of school integrity might be a reason fish passes act as an ecological trap for fish species that live in schools. An understanding of how hydrodynamics, encountered near fish passes, affect school cohesion and schooling behaviour is needed. A ‘back-to-basics’ study was executed that explored the response of fish schools to hydrodynamics in an experimental setting. The Common Minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) was chosen, since it is a strong schooling species and abundant in English rivers. Minnows are quite similar in morphology and swimming movements to the important (migratory) salmonids and could therefore serve as a proxy. Movements of schools of two individuals were recorded in flowing and standing water, and their individual trajectories extracted from video data. Results show that minnows switch from a tandem configuration in standing water to a close side-by-side configuration in flowing water. Modelling work revealed that in this side-by-side configuration, energy savings could not be realised. It was concluded that fish aim to maximize information transfer when encountering flow and therefore have to rely on vision more than their lateral line system as the effectiveness of the latter is disturbed by the flow conditions. These findings suggest that passage of schooling fish is highly dependent on flow characteristics as these determine the success of collective movement and navigation through fish passes

Developing critical pitter thresholds for canning peaches using the nondestructive Sinclair firmness sensor

The rclationship bctwccn mechanical pitting damage using ihe Alias piner (Atlas Pacific Engineering Ca, l»c > Pueblo, Colorado) over a range of nondestmetive and destruciive firmness measuremems for 'Andross*, Car$on\ and *Ros$* clingsíone peaches was studied, During the two years of woifc, (he percentage of 'Aodiosa1, *Car$on\ and 'Rou' fmit wiih pitung damage increased sharply as nondestmetive firmness sensor Sinclair firmness index valúes fell below 7 0 (SFI) and \\hcn dostructive penelromeief readings fell bdow 3 S pounds (17 N) Even ihough ihere was a low correlation between nondesiruciive and desinictive firmness measuremems. nondestmetive mcasuremcnte appcar to be wcll lelated lo (he piíüng damage These preliminary results encourage ihat further research to ímprove the relationship belween an automatic nondestmetive systcm could give processors ihe opüon to segiegate peaches susceptible lo pitting prior lo processin

The Influence of Fallback Foods on Great Ape Tooth Enamel

Lucas and colleagues recently proposed a model based on fracture and deformation concepts to describe how mammalian tooth enamel may be adapted to the mechanical demands of diet (Lucas et al.: Bioessays 30[2008] 374-385). Here we review the applicability of that model by examining existing data on the food mechanical properties and enamel morphology of great apes (Pan, Pongo, and Gorilla). Particular attention is paid to whether the consumption of fallback foods is likely to play a key role in influencing great ape enamel morphology. Our results suggest that this is indeed the case. We also consider the implications of this conclusion on the evolution of the dentition of extinct hominins