Barbary Apes Out of Africa
DNA analysis today reveals that Europe's only free-ranging monkeys are all descended from two ancient populations from the forests of Algeria and Morocco.
DNA analysis today reveals that Europe's only free-ranging monkeys - the so-called Barbary apes of Gibraltar - are all descended from two ancient populations from the forests of Algeria and Morocco.
Macaca sylvanus is one of 19 species of macaque monkey, but the only one found in Africa. About 200 live semi-wild in Gibraltar.
Robert Martin, of the Field Museum in Chicago, and colleagues report in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they studied 280 samples of mitochondrial DNA - which is inherited only from the mother. Only about 10,000 macaques survive in Africa, and the researchers found that the Algerian and Moroccan animals made up two distinct populations. They decided that Gibraltar's macaques must have descended from both populations.
Macaca sylvanus is one of 19 species of macaque monkey, but the only one found in Africa. About 200 live semi-wild in Gibraltar.
Robert Martin, of the Field Museum in Chicago, and colleagues report in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they studied 280 samples of mitochondrial DNA - which is inherited only from the mother. Only about 10,000 macaques survive in Africa, and the researchers found that the Algerian and Moroccan animals made up two distinct populations. They decided that Gibraltar's macaques must have descended from both populations.
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