Inventory and Assessment of the Pongo (Linnaeus, 1760) Skeletal Collection Housed at the Yale Peabody Museum

Abstract

Museum collections are critical resources for examination of comparative anatomy, developmental biology, and life history hypotheses. Skeletal collections provide insight into spatiotemporal, species, population, and individual variation associated with environmental, social, and epidemiological history. For endangered species such as great apes, these collections provide data nearly impossible to replicate today. In this third in a series of articles reviewing the great ape holdings of the Yale Peabody Museum, we describe the Pongo skeletal collection. Nine catalog numbers in the collection represent nine individuals: two males, five females, and two individuals of indeterminate sex. Evidence of trauma, socioecology, metabolic stressors, infectious disease, and captive management issues are described in detail. The collection exhibits taxonomic diversity as well, with two species present. Our evaluation of the Yale Peabody Museum collection provides a baseline for future research and testable hypotheses for alternate techniques, such as isotopic analyses of dental calculus and noninvasive genetic testing. Museum collections continue to provide new insights into taxonomic and individual variation and environmental context, ultimately allowing for comparisons between modern and historical environmental and behavioral variables.