Systematic Morphology and Evolutionary Anatomy of the Autonomic Cardiac Nervous System in the Lesser Apes, Gibbons (Hylobatidae)

Abstract

We examined the morphology of the autonomic cardiac nervous system (ACNS) on 20 sides of 10 gibbons (Hylobatidae) of three genera, and we have inferred the evolution of the anatomy of the primate ACNS. We report the following. (1) Several trivial intraspecific and interspecific variations are present in gibbons, but the general arrangement of the ACNS in gibbons is consistent. (2) Although the parasympathetic vagal cardiac nervous system is extremely consistent, the sympathetic cardiac nervous system, such as the composition of the sympathetic ganglia and the range of origin of the sympathetic cardiac nerves, exhibit topographical differences among primates. (3) The vertebral ganglion, seldom observed in the Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae), was consistently present in gibbons as well as in humans. (4) There are fewer thoracic ganglia contributing to the cervicothoracic ganglion in humans than in gibbons and in gibbons than in Old World monkeys. (5) The superior cardiac nerve originating from the superior cervical ganglion, rarely observed in Old World monkeys but commonly observed in humans, was present in 13 of 20 sides (65%), mostly on the left. Accordingly, the ACNS morphology exhibits evolutionary changes within the primate lineage. These evolutionary differences between Old World monkeys, gibbons, and humans are most parsimoniously interpreted as resulting from regular changes in the lineages leading from their common ancestor to the extant species that we dissected. They include the reduction in the number of thoracic ganglia contributing to the cervicothoracic ganglion and the expansion of the range of the cardiac nervous origin.