Canopy height utilisation and trauma in three species of cercopithecoid monkeys

Trauma was studied in the long bones (femur, tibia, fibula, humerus, radius, and ulna) of primate skeletal remains based at the Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington, Kent, UK. The specimens were from three different arboreal quadrupeds who are known to travel at overlapping but differential levels in the the tree canopy; Cercopithecus cephus, and Piliocolobus badtus. Of the 80 skeletons examined, 15 had evidence of healed fractures. The femur was found to be the most frequent type of bone broken amongst all three species, followed by the humerus, then radius. Although there was a trend toward a higher trauma frequency based on increased canopy travelling height, the differences were nott statistically different