Word: gorillas
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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This specimen was the basis for the first scientific description of the genus gorilla on record. Dr. Wyman delivered a speech describing the gorilla to the Boston Society of Natural History. As time went on, and other specimens were discovered, they were sent back to museums on the continent of Europe and to England, as well as to the United States...
...describes the general external characteristics in the adult male which distinguish the Mountain from the Coast Gorilla as, "a longer palate and often a narrower skull, a thicker pelage or belt, shorter arms and longer legs, large amount of black hair, and prominent fleshy callosity on the chest...
...made a comprehensive study of most of the available works on the gorilla, with special emphasis on habits in the field that might affect the growth of its skull, also a study of the writings on the gorilla's brain and skull by such anatomists as Anthony, Bolk, Duckworth, Elliot Smith, Selenka, Keith, and Harris, often supplemented by discussion with these...
...computations without any preconceived theory as to what he might find and studied the curves of variation which resulted. On these he discovered that certain measurements showed sufficiently great differences between regions to warrant calling them different subspecies. Study of the curves forced him to divide the species into Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Savage & Wyman) or Coast, and Gorilla gorilla beringei (Matschie) or Mountain. It happens that the first of these races is the one found on the West Coast of Central Africa and the second race is found in the mountains of the Eastern Congo separated from the first...
...conclusion is that "the gorilla, particularly the adult male, shows a large individual variation even within the limits of a small area; that there is no difference in kind between the Coast and the Mountain Gorillas such as to justify making of them two separate species, but that there is a distinct difference in degree sufficiently important to constitute a subspecific difference between the two groups...