Somebody recently mentioned reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. We discussed it a bit.

It occurred to me that the group of apes who raised Tarzan were described as being smaller than gorillas and larger than chimpanzees. The description suggested an animal very much like a larger than average human with hair covering the entire body.

Is there an African primate fitting the description of the apes in the Tarzan novel? I do not remember ever seeing such a primate in a zoo or a picture of such in a book about primates.

The elusive apes :

The creature's face is gorilla-like and has a sagittal crest - a long bony ridge - that is typical of gorillas.

But other aspects of the skull morphology are that of a chimpanzee, according to Colin Groves, an expert at the Australian National University in Canberra.


- http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=U&start=4&q=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/07/1097089465340.html%3Ffrom%3Dstorylhs&e=912

Not sure whether Tarzan was supposed to have been raised in Congo.