James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Spring 2011 Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta Stephanie Ann Wolf James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the Biology Commons Recommended Citation Wolf, Stephanie Ann, "Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta" (2011). Masters Theses. 371. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/371 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ontogeny of postcranial morphology and locomotor behavior in Propithecus verreauxi coquereli and Lemur catta Stephanie Ann Wolf A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Biology May 2011 This thesis is dedicated with sincere gratitude to my mother, Debra Wolf. ii Acknowledgements Numerous people have committed time and energy allowing for the completion of this thesis. Foremost among them is my graduate advisor Dr. Roshna Wunderlich. I would like to thank her for her patience, advice, and dedication to this project, and the valuable hours she spent working with me. I additionally want to thank her for agreeing to take me on as a graduate student, despite already having another graduate student and many undergraduates in her lab to advise. In taking me under her wing she allowed me to do the research that I was genuinely interested in and passionate about. Dr. Rich Lawler, Dr. Chris Rose, and Dr. Kit Murphy contributed significantly to enhancing this thesis with extremely valuable knowledge, comments, and suggestions. I would also like to thank Dr. Lawler for the time he spent helping me with some of the difficult statistical data processing. I would like to thank the Duke Lemur Center staff, specifically Sarah Zehr and David Brewer for their help with animal handling, restraint, and data collection. I thank them for their dedication to this project because without their help and knowledge of the animals, data collection would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the James Madison University Animal Movement Lab, specifically Kristina Silke, Marin Barden, and Sarah Ischinger for their valuable comments and moral support throughout the past two years. I additionally thank Dr. Patrice Ludwig, Carly Muletz, Bryan Saunders, Julia Stutzman, Sarah Heltzel, and Paul Arsenovic for their valuable input and moral support, especially in the beginning of this project. I thank Sigma Xi for their financial support in the form of two Grants-In-Aid of Research to help fund this project (G2009151076 & G20101015154091). iii Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends. My fiancé, Colin Gundling, who has given me endless support and motivation to accomplish my goals. I thank my mother, Debra Wolf, for her emotional and financial support and endless reassurance, as she has always encouraged me to excel academically. Thank you to my father, Kenneth Wolf for his commitment to me and both financial and moral support to obtain this Master’s degree. I would also like to thank my sister, Carrie Wolf, for her support and encouragement. iv Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Adult Locomotor Behavior and Morphology ....................................................5 Life History ........................................................................................................9 Locomotor Development .................................................................................13 Skeletal Growth ...............................................................................................16 Postcranial Muscle Growth ..............................................................................20 Ontogeny of Locomotion in Primates ..............................................................22 Methodological Considerations .......................................................................23 Overall Objectives and Predictions ..................................................................24 Materials and Methods .......................................................................................................28 Location and Subjects ......................................................................................28 Morphological Data Collection........................................................................30 Behavioral Data Collection ..............................................................................34 Statistical Analysis ...........................................................................................40 Results ................................................................................................................................42 Morphology Results ..........................................................................................42 Body Mass vs. Age .......................................................................................42 Limb Proportions ..........................................................................................47 Limb Segment Growth: 0-2 Years ................................................................52 Limb Segment Growth: 6-24 vs. 24-52 weeks .............................................54 Behavior Results ...............................................................................................58 Locomotion Behavior ...................................................................................58 Support Use ...................................................................................................62 Captive vs. Wild Data ...................................................................................67 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................68 Survival Strategies: Influences of Locomotor & Postcranial Ontogeny ...........70 Methodological Considerations ........................................................................79 Conclusions .......................................................................................................82 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................84 References ..........................................................................................................................88 v List of Tables I. Introduction Table 1.1 Life history comparison of P. verreauxi and L. catta 10 Table 1.2 Locomotor developmental in P. v. coquereli and L. catta 14 Table 1.3 Locomotor categories used in this study 16 Table 1.4 Intermembral indices and locomotor behaviors 18 II. Methods Table 2.1 Animals used in each component of this study 29 Table 2.2 Morphological measurements and landmarks 31 Table 2.3 Summary of morphology data distribution 31 Table 2.4 Locomotor definitions from Hunt et al. (1996) 35 Table 2.5 Postural definitions from Hunt et al. (1996) 36 Table 2.6 Ethogram of supports 37 Table 2.7 Sample overview for locomotion 38 Table 2.8 Key to locomotor behaviors and postures 39 III. Results Table 3.1 Allometric coefficients of males and females from 0-2 years 46 Table 3.2 Confidence intervals for regressions 48 Table 3.3 Allometric coefficients from 6-24 and 24-52 weeks 57 Table 3.4 Frequency of locomotor behaviors during locomotion 59 Table 3.5 Frequency of dominant limb(s) used during locomotion 61 Table 3.6 Support use orientation for all locomotion 63 Table 3.7 Support use size for all locomotion 65 Table 3.8 Comparison of wild to captive data 67 IV. Discussion Table 4.1 Comparison of P. v. coquereli to other specialized leapers 72 V. Appendix A Table A.1 Frequency of locomotor bouts during locomotion 85 Table A.2 Frequency of dominant limb(s) used bouts in locomotion 87 vi List of Figures I. Introduction Figure 1.1 Phylogenetic organization of primates 2 Figure 1.2 Division of primates and extant lemur families 3 Figure 1.3 Distribution of extant strepsirrhines and tarsiers 3 Figure 1.4 Longitudinal vs. cross-sectional growth data comparison 23 II. Methods Figure 2.1 Focal animal bout sampling locomotor measurements 34 III. Results Figure 3.1 Growth of 2 DLC species from 0-3 years of age 43 Figure 3.2 Growth of 2 DLC species from 0-30 years of age 43 Figure 3.3 Growth comparison of P. v. coquereli used in this study 44 Figure 3.4 Growth comparison