For thousands of years, men and women have strived to explain the why of their existence. To discover the reasons for how we act the way we do and what this knowledge can do to impact the way we live our lives in this complex society that we have created. One of the ways that science has begun to shed light on the inner workings of the human condition is through Primatology. Built from the words Primate which refers to a group of animals closely related to humans and logos which is a Greek word meaning 'the study of' Primatology's goals include more than simply to amass data on the primate species. Rather a Primatologist observes data about primates in an effort to understand the primate species under their study and to relate that data back to the human condition so that we can learn more about ourselves through our evolutionary cousins. In recent years, Primatologists have done much research on all aspects of the life of the western lowland Gorilla, known scientifically as: gorilla gorilla gorilla (Fay, 1989). In this paper I will compare these primates, more precisely classified as great ape

Unlike humans, which are bipedal, walking on two legs, Gorillas are quadrupedal, they walk on all fours with the soles of their feet flat on the ground with the knuckles of the hands curled and planted on the ground (Schaller, 1963). Although they are mainly quadrupedal, gorillas can travel bipedally but generally no farther than approximately six meters (Schaller, 1963). This upright stance is used most often used for chest beating, to observe something of interest, or to reach an object (Schaller, 1963).

Despite their fearsome size (three hundred to five hundred pounds for males and one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty pounds for females) and large canine teeth the western lowland gorilla is an herbivore. They consume over two hundred types of leaves, tubers, flowers, and fruit, supplemented with fungus and some types of insects. Gorillas do not drink water. They obtain all the moisture they need from the vast amounts of foliage they consume. Males consume approximately fifty pounds of vegetation a day (Elizabeth, 1990). This is very different from the omnivorous diet of the human species, which has often been observed stalking and killing a Big Mac. All joking aside though, a human's daily diet contains considerably more protein than a Gorilla might consume in a week or more (Elizabeth, 1990).

Western lowland gorillas are covered with black or brown-gray fur with black skin on chests, palms, and faces. Red heads are common in Camaroon gorillas especially. Males develop a silver back as they mature this is not unlike the tendency for many human males to develop gray hair as they mature as well. The main difference being that only Gorilla males develop silver backs whereas in humans both males and females alike tend to lose their hair coloring with age.

A Gorilla has an enormous head, with a bulging forehead overhanging the eyes and a bony crest on top. The sagittal crest, which is especially noticeable in adult males, supports large muscles used to process the large amounts of vegetative matter in their diet. The Human skull sports no such sagittal crest and the jaw muscles are greatly smaller than those found in the Gorilla no doubt illustrating Human adaptation away from a diet consisting largely of coarse vegetable matter. This is also evident in the differences between Human and Gorilla dentition (teeth). Human teeth are very

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)