Big Questions Flashcards
What is a primate
Arboreal, highly flexible diet, and invest a lot of time in their young
What are the kinds of primates?
More that 200 in 2 separate suborders, strepsirhines and haplorhines
Why are primates social?
For protection and for reproduction
What is specific about primate societies
They are highly diverse ranging from solitary to complex multi male multi female groups.
How do primates squire food
They rely on their bodies to acquire food. Some hunt other primates. And the use of tools
How do primates communicate?
Primates communicate info through many ways especially through vocalizations
What are fossils?
The remains of once living things wholly or partially turned in to rock
What do fossils tell us about the past?
Provide understanding biological evolution and revile diets
What are the methods used to study fossils
Relative and absolute dating, to put past findings in chronological order
What were the first primates
Adapids and omomyids both about 55 mya
What were the first higher primate
Aegyptopithicus
What is a hominin
Bipedal movers and non honing chewers
Why did hominins evolve from an ape like primate?
Because of bipedalism and the need to be more efficient when exploiting patchy forests
What were the first hominins
Australopithecus between 7-4 mya
What was the evolutionary fate of the first hominins
Increased robusticity of the chewing complex, no change in brain size and eventual extinction
