99 - Reproductive Anatomy of the Female Rhesus Macaque (Macaca Mulatta)

Poster Board Number: 99
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Abstract Body : Rhesus macaques are the most studied nonhuman primate in both field and laboratory research. Despite this, the reproductive anatomy of the macaque is not well documented. To this purpose, we intend to provide a descriptive analysis of the female macaque reproductive anatomy in comparison to human. We investigated one adult female macaque that was procured by ARCIVES at Midwestern University using standard dissection techniques. Briefly, we incised the ventral abdominal wall, identifying the body wall musculature. We were able to identify both ovaries, the uterus, and the oviducts and then removed the skin of the entire perineum, including both the anal and urogenital triangles. We found that the oviducts were exceptionally long and torturous when compared to the human, possibly providing a way for females to combat extensive sperm competition. In the perineum, the primary feature were the ischial callosities, which are well-defined calloused structures on the gluteal region. The vulva, therefore, was constrained to a very small, central area, making it difficult to identify the labia or the crura of the clitoris, but we could identify small bulbs of the vestibule with an overlying bulbospongiosus muscle. The external anal sphincter was extremely gracile when compared to humans and we were unable to identify muscular continuities between the anal and perineal triangles. A perineal body of moderate size was identified and the perineum of the female macaque was smaller than that in human. The findings of this research will lend itself to improving clinical applications of developmental and reproductive disorders.