First molar eruption, weaning, and life history in living wild chimpanzees.

Understanding dental development in chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, is of fundamental importance for reconstructing the evolution of human development. Most early hominin species are believed to show rapid ape-like patterns of development, implying that a prolonged modern human childhood evolved quite recently. However, chimpanzee developmental standards are uncertain because they have never been based on living wild individuals. Furthermore, although it is well established that first molar tooth emergence (movement into the mouth) is correlated with the scheduling of growth and reproduction across primates broadly, its precise relation to solid food consumption, nursing behavior, or maternal life history is unknown. To address these concerns we conducted a photographic study of subadult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Kanyawara, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Five healthy infants emerged their lower first molars (M1s) by or before 3.3 y of age, nearly identical to captive chimpanzee mean ages (∼3.2 y, n = 53). First molar emergence in these chimpanzees does not directly or consistently predict the introduction of solid foods, resumption of maternal estrous cycling, cessation of nursing, or maternal interbirth intervals. Kanyawara chimpanzees showed adult patterns of solid food consumption by the time M1 reached functional occlusion, spent a greater amount of time on the nipple while M1 was erupting than in the preceding year, and continued to suckle during the following year. Estimates of M1 emergence age in australopiths are remarkably similar to the Kanyawara chimpanzees, and recent reconstructions of their life histories should be reconsidered in light of these findings.

Dental eruption in East African wild chimpanzees.

Knowledge of chimpanzee development has played an essential role in our understanding of the evolution of human ontogeny. However, recent studies of wild ape dentitions have cast doubt on the use of developmental standards derived from captive individuals. Others have called into question the use of deceased wild individuals to infer normative development. We conducted a high resolution photographic study of living known-age subadults in the Kanyawara community (Kibale National Park, Uganda) to generate a comprehensive three year record of dental eruption (including tooth emergence ages). These non-invasive data allow comparisons of captive and wild chimpanzees, establish accurate developmental standards for relatively healthy wild individuals, and facilitate direct assessments of primate-wide associations between dental development and life history. Emergence ages in the Kanyawara chimpanzees are very similar to living Gombe chimpanzees, and are broadly comparable to deceased Taï Forest chimpanzees. Early-emerging teeth such as the deciduous dentition and first molar (M1) appear during a time of maternal dependence, and are almost indistinguishable from captive chimpanzee emergence ages, while later forming teeth in the Kanyawara population emerge in the latter half of captive age ranges or beyond. Five juveniles whose lower M1s emerged by or before 3.3 years of age continued to nurse for a year or more beyond M1 emergence, and their mothers showed considerable variation in reproductive rates. The third molars of two adolescent females emerged several months to several years prior to the birth of their first offspring. Given that broad primate-wide relationships between molar emergence and life history do not necessarily hold within this population of chimpanzees, particularly for variables that are reported to be coincident with molar emergence, we suggest that further study is required in order to predict life history variables in hominins or hominoids.

Coincident tick infestations in the nostrils of wild chimpanzees and a human in Uganda.

Ticks in the nostrils of humans visiting equatorial African forests have been reported sporadically for decades, but their taxonomy and natural history have remained obscure. We report human infestation with a nostril tick in Kibale National Park, Uganda, coincident with infestation of chimpanzees in the same location with nostril ticks, as shown by high-resolution digital photography. The human-derived nostril tick was identified morphologically and genetically as a nymph of the genus Amblyomma, but the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA or the nuclear intergenic transcribed spacer 2 DNA sequences of the specimen were not represented in GenBank. These ticks may represent a previously uncharacterized species that is adapted to infesting chimpanzee nostrils as a defense against grooming. Ticks that feed upon apes and humans may facilitate cross-species transmission of pathogens, and the risk of exposure is likely elevated for persons who frequent ape habitats.