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Cross-Sectional Morphology of the Femoral Neck of Wild Chimpanzees

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Abstract

To understand the mechanical effects of different modes of locomotion on the femoral neck of chimpanzees, we investigated the cross-sectional morphology of the femoral neck of 4 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) collected from the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania. We performed serial computed tomography (CT) scans of the neck from the femoral head to the base of the neck perpendicular to the long axis of the neck. We measured the cortical thickness of the serial 5 cross sections of the neck region every 45° around the circumference, i.e., 8 points per section, and examined the cross-sectional properties of the mid-section. When we compared the superior and inferior parts of the cortical thickness of the femoral neck, the inferior part exhibited the greatest cortical thickness whereas the superior part had the smallest values in every specimen. Researchers have also observed such regional differences between superior and inferior cortical thicknesses in bipedal humans and other primates, although these differences are not as large in the chimpanzee as in bipedal hominini. The present study differed from the past study on hominini and chimpanzees in that the superior anterior (SA) part exhibited greater cortical thickness in chimpanzees. We believe these observations reflect the structural strengthening of parts of the chimpanzee femoral neck that is needed to accommodate the mechanical loads imposed by arboreal vertical climbing and terrestrial quadrupedal and bipedal locomotion.

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Acknowledgments

A part of this study was presented in the Post Congress of the International Primatological Society, which was held in Durham in 2008. We thank Drs. T. C. Rae, Y. Hamada, and E. Hirasaki for giving us the opportunity to publish this work. We thank Drs. M. Hajima and T. Nakamura for their comments and support during data processing, and we also thank the anonymous reviewers for constructive and helpful suggestions, which helped to greatly improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa, 359-8513, Japan

    Akiyoshi Matsumura & Yutaka Takahashi

  2. College of Education, Ibaraki University, Mito, 310-8610, Japan

    Harumoto Gunji

  3. Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, 484-0081, Japan

    Toshisada Nishida

  4. Department of Human Care, Teikyo Heisei University, Tokyo, 170-8445, Japan

    Morihiko Okada

Authors
  1. Akiyoshi Matsumura
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  2. Harumoto Gunji
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  3. Yutaka Takahashi
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  4. Toshisada Nishida
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  5. Morihiko Okada
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Correspondence to Akiyoshi Matsumura.

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Matsumura, A., Gunji, H., Takahashi, Y. et al. Cross-Sectional Morphology of the Femoral Neck of Wild Chimpanzees. Int J Primatol 31, 219–238 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-010-9403-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-010-9403-9

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