Humans and apes

[Namibian Museum]

Interesting ancillary characters to include is that the only other known
species of Pthirus is Pt. gorillae (Phthiraptera : Pthiridae), while the
only other Pediculus species (Phthiraptera : Pediculidae) in Africa is
Pe. schaeffi on both Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus. Pediculus also
occurs outside Africa, but unfortunately I cannot check on which hosts
(Ferris' 1951 The Sucking Lice should have details).

Eugene Marais

john Grehan wrote:
>
> THowever, I do admit I have a current
> bias towards the orangutan hypothesis. It was my personal reaction to the
> hypothesis that it made coherent sense out of a number of hominid
> characteristics that were otherwise problematic - such basic and rather
> prominent uniquely shared 'human' characteristics such as thick dental
> enamel, a well developed beard and mustache in the male, the absence of an
> estrous cycle, most axillary position of mammary glands, longest hair
> length, absence of anogenital tumescence during the menstrual cycle, and
> the longest gestation period scaled to body weight.