Research history of primates

Nonhuman primates probably first became valuable to humans as pets but they are also the oldest recorded animal subjects for scientific research. The earliest primates began to appear after the time that dinosaurs had become extinct beginning almost 50 to 60 million years ago. They differed from other mammals in a number of ways, all of which can be traced directly to the biological makeup of modern human.

They tended to be larger and they had larger brain on proportion to their body size. Nonhuman primate pet trading is known to have occurred in Egypt as long as 5000 years ago; their use for medical purpose came somewhat later.

Medical experiments on primates have been known since the age of ancient Egypt (2nd millennium BC). Egyptian priests, dissected baboon cadavers for ritualistic purposes.

There is evidence in the literature that Hippocrates, ‘the father of medicine’, dissected monkeys in order to find out how gall is excreted.

Alexandrian doctors (3rd century BC) also carried out anatomical studies of monkey’s inner organs. There is also evidence of one Rufus of Ethers who studies the anatomy of simians even before Galen.

Darwin’s research on evolution and particularly his notes on the behavior of the gorilla established his credentials as one of the first observational primatologists. Also late in the 19th century, the British physician David Ferrier conducted comparative neuroanatomy studies of apes and monkeys.

Before World War II, the nations of France, Belgium, Russia and the United States had established research stations and conservation areas for nonhuman primate study, Nonhuman primates were also the subjects of medical research on tropical diseases, yellow fever, polio, and syphilis.
Research history of primates