|
Subscribe / Renew |
|
|
Contact Us |
|
| ► Subscribe to our Free Weekly Newsletter | |
| home | Welcome, sign in or click here to subscribe. | login |
March 5, 2010
Q. From a Hiram, Ohio, reader: “Are there any developmentally disabled nonhuman primates? For example, a gorilla with Down Syndrome?”
A. Many such examples exist in the scientific literature, says Frans de Waal of the Yerkes Primate Center of Emory University and author of “The Age of Empathy.” “I know cases of trisomy (three copies of a chromosome, instead of the normal two) of chromosome 22 in one chimpanzee and one orangutan; in both, the condition was associated with mental retardation superficially resembling Down Syndrome, which afflicts humans with trisomy 21.”
. . .
Previous columns: