Book Introduction Notes

Question 1

Primates are

Answer 1

Complex highly intelligent animals that are at times incredibly beautiful

Question 2

Use studies to

Answer 2

Speculate about the evolutionary origins of our humanity since we are genetically closer to our primate relatives than any other creature

Question 3

Many primate species have come and gone due to

Answer 3

Natural disasters or ongoing human activities that alter their habitat
Mostly forested habitats destroyed for agriculture and commercial use (mining and logging) or to make way for urbanization
Destroyed in civil war or bombings (insecticides and arboricides contaminate plants and insects they eat)

Question 4

Primates are an incredibly varied group of mammals

Answer 4

Range from 30g (Pygmy lemur) to 160 kg (gorilla)
Habitats deserts, swamps, rain forests, snowy mtns
Posture can vary 180 degrees (eat upside down, humans spend time standing up)
Some hibernate
Diets are different combinations
Different levels of socialization
Care of offspring range from mom, mom/dad, fam,

Question 5

Many species resemble each other by being described as

Answer 5

Lively, playful, and curious, traits that suggest a high degree of intelligence
Product of intricately evolved sophisticated brains

Question 6

Primates are basically tropical animals since

Answer 6

Millions of years ago climate was warmer and more tropical forests

Question 7

Fossil record

Answer 7

Show primates were more widespread than modern non human primates

Question 8

90% of non human primates still live

Answer 8

In a variety of forested areas
Primary, secondary, and gallery forests near water

Question 9

Some shifted from forests to

Answer 9

Grassland plains (Savannah’s)
African monkeys and apes

Question 10

Habitat

Answer 10

The specific environment in which a primate lives

Question 11

Primates in tropical forests … their habitat

Answer 11

Time-share
Feed at different times, focus on different foods, forage at different parts of the levels in the trees
Insects in shrubs of lower level or understory
Fruits at all levels
Leaves more plentiful in the lower parts of the upper story

Question 12

Lower and middle stories provide a closed canopy that is

Answer 12

Easy to navigate
Where most rainforest primates eat, travel, sleep

Question 13

Primates that live in different habitats or levels of the canopy tend to

Answer 13

Differ in their locomotor patterns

Question 14

Five main primate locomotion

Answer 14

Vertical clinging and leaping, arboreal quadrupedal, terrestrial quadrupedal, suspension, Bipedalism

Question 15

Vertical clinging and leaping

Answer 15

Seen in many arboreal prosimians that have especially long hind limbs, hands, and feet used for leaping upright between vertical trunks that are found mostly in closed canopies

Question 16

Quardrupedalism

Answer 16

Moving on all four limbs

Question 17

Arboreal Quadrupedalism

Answer 17

The most common type of locomotion across all primates and is characterized by grasping hands and feet and a long tail for balancing

Question 18

Terrestrial Quadrupedalism

Answer 18

Ground living quadrupeds have shorter fingers, toes, and tails
Arms long compared to legs and knuckle walk

Question 19

Suspension

Answer 19

Comes in variety of forms
Howler monkeys and orangutans suspend body by both arms and legs as they climb and bridge gaps
Spider monkeys and gibbons use brachiation which is arm over arm swinging

Question 20

Bipedalism

Answer 20

Walking upright on two legs
Only human habitually engage in this form

Question 21

Over … living species of primates

Answer 21

200

Question 22

Fossils show much more species have lived but are now

Answer 22

Extinct

Question 23

Taxonomic classification

Answer 23

Is hierarchical where each category include all below it
Genus Homo belongs to the family Hominidae which joins the apes in the superfamily Hominoidea

Question 24

Genus

Answer 24

Is composed of one or more biological species whose members are capable of interbreeding and producing viable offspring

Question 25

Classification in this text is based on

Answer 25

A traditional decision of the order primates into two suborders
Prosimians and Anthropoids

Question 26

Prosimians (premonkeys)

Answer 26

Lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers

Question 27

Anthropoids (higher primates)

Answer 27

Apes, monkeys, humans

Question 28

Alternate classification

Answer 28

Sprepsirhini (lorises and lemurs)
Haplorhini (tarsiers, monkeys, apes, humans)

Question 29

No simple answer to

Answer 29

What makes a primate a primate
No one feature separates primates from other mammals
Many exceptions to typical primate features
Best we can do is enumerate a pattern of features that together describe the typical primate
Some found in skeleton and can fossilize which is what paleontologist find useful when discovering new specimens to represent primates

Question 30

Ten of the best known features that constitute a primate (Part 1)

Answer 30

1. A shortened snout that contains at least three types of teeth
2. Eye sockets (orbits) that face forward and are protected on the side, toward the back, by bone (post orbital bar)
3. Three little bones of the middle ear housed within an outgrowth (petrosal bulla) of the skull, instead of being contained in a separate bone (or cartilage)
4. Collarbones (clavicles)
5. Fingernails and toenails instead of claws

Question 31

Ten of the beat known features that constitute a primate (Part 2)

Answer 31

6. Two separate bones in the forearm (radius and ulna) and leg (tibia and fibula)
7. Grasping feet (except humans) and hands, with mobility of thumbs and big toes as well as other individual digits
8. Tendency toward vertical posture
9. Tend toward longer lives with longer periods of infancy, childhood, and adulthood
10. Enlarged brain with increased areas for seeing and decreased areas for smelling

Question 32

Some non human primate seen as … and others seen as … in …

Answer 32

Sacred, pests, different cultures

Question 33

Horribly humans have … for various purposes

Answer 33

body parts of other primates

Question 34

We often see other primates as

Answer 34

Available for human disposal
Labs, slaves, etc

Question 35

In many areas where primates are legally protected

Answer 35

Enforcement is insufficient

Question 36

What are one way to help keep them from the horrible situations

Answer 36

Breeding programs and conservation efforts