Ch.4 Flashcards
What three things do primatologist use to form the basis of taxonomy?
Biological taxonomy- a classification of various kinds of organisms, grouped together based on the basis of morphological traits, behavioural traits, and geological distribution.
Taxon- each species as well as each group of species related at any level in a taxonomic hierarchy. (Plural, taxa)
What are contemporary taxonomies designed to reflect?
Designed to reflect evolutionary relationships that modern biologists believe were responsible for similarities and differences among species.
What did traditional taxonomies focus on?
Morphology of organisms- the physical shape and size of an organism or it’s body parts. And related these to the adaptions the organisms had developed.
Organisms that seemed to have developed similar adaptations at a similar level of complexity in similar environments were classified together in same evolutionary division.
Good because the fossils that are there, are often so incomplete that classification more precise than “group” would be misleading.
What two main groups did the traditional system classify primates into?
Prosimians: (now strepsirrhines)
Includes lemurs and lories.
Anthropoids: (now haplorhines)
Includes tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans
What two primary groups make up the strepsirrhines?
Lemurs and lories.
•Prosimians that have a rhinarium (a wet looking, grooved nose) and a cleft upper lip that is attached to their gums by a web of skin. 
•Have a tooth comb (forward tilting lower incisors in canine teeth used for grooming).
•Grooming Claw on the second digit of their feet
•Ankle bone (or talus) that flares to the side
•Dentition displays the dental formula 2.1.3.3. (That is, each side of both upper and lower jaws have two incisors, one Canine, three pre-molars, and three molars.) 
•lorises are found in Africa and Asia and possess features in their cranium that differentiate them from lemurs. 
Where are lemurs found today?
Today lemurs are found only on the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa, where they were isolated from competition from later evolving primate species on the African mainland. 
Are lemurs and lorises Diurnal (active at day) or nocturnal (Active at night)
Both groups live in trees, are nocturnal and are slow climbers. 
What primary groups make up the haplorhines?
Tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans. 
•These are all primates with a dry looking noses that is separate from their lips.
•Continuous upper lip that is not attached directly to their gums. 
Why are tarsiers in the same clade as anthropoids?
Tarsiers are nocturnal primates that only eat animal food, such as insects, birds, bats, and snakes. 
Because they share a number of derived traits with anthropoids, including dry noses, detached upper lips, a similar structured placenta (and heavier infants), and a structure in their skulls called “postorbital partition”.
Morphology: a tiny body and enormous eyes and feet is quite distinctive.
• Tarsiers have no tooth comb but resemble lemurs and Lorises in the upper jaw (2.1.3.3) although not the lower jaw (1.1.3.3). Resembles that of anthropoids.
What monkeys are in the platyrrhines?
A term referring to the broad, flat noses; old world monkeys, apes, and humans are called catarrhines. In reference to the downward pointing nostrils.
• Titi monkeys (may bear the closest resemblance to the earliest platyrrhines), Capuchins (Organ grinder monkeys), Spider and howler monkeys,
•platyrrhines Dental formula is 2.1.3.3. Three pre-molars.
•catarrhines Dental formula is 2.1.2.3. To pre-molars
•Tree dwellers
•The only clade of primates that involved in Central and South America.
What types of tails are found among New World monkeys?
Prehensile or grasping tails. Tails function much like a fifth limb, helping them to suspend themselves in trees.
What are the best known of old world monkey species?
Ground dwelling species of baboons. Hamadryas (Papio hamadrya) and gelada (theropithecus gelada), Found in Africa.
Briefly describe how hamadryas Males build up their 1 male units
Build up there one male units by enticing females away from other units or by adopting immature females and caring for them until they are ready to breed. They carefully police the females in their humans, punishing those that stray with a ritualized neck bite.
In addition, males thought to be kin form bonds to create a higher level social unit known as a clan. 
Gelada baboons Construct their 1-male units on the core of strongly bonded female relatives that are closely influenced by the dominant female and that stay together even if the male of the group is removed.
What two groups are in the hominoidea?
Is the superfamily of the catarrhines that includes apes and humans.
Apes can be distinguished from old world monkeys by morphological features, such dentition (reduced canine size, changes in Josh shape and molar shape), and Absence of a tail. 
What three groups make up the apes?
The lesser apes (Gibbons), the great apes (orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees), and the the hominins (humans).
Gibbons: Hylobatidea.
•Found in tropical rainforests of south eastern Asia
•Show no sexual dimorphism in size, although in some species males and females have different coat colours.
•monogamous, neither male nor female is consistently dominant
•Males contribute a great deal of care to their offspring
•Groups usually comprise the mated pair and one or two offspring, all of whom spend comparatively little time in social interactions with one another.
•Defend their joint territory, usually vocalizing together
-Establishing a territory appears to be difficult for newly mated pairs, and there is some evidence that the parents may assist offspring in this effort. Evidence also suggests that some young male Gibbons inherit the territory of their parents by pairing with their widowed mother’s, although these pairs do not seem to breed. 
Orangutans
•Found only in the rain forests of Sumatra and Borneo in southeastern Asia. 
•Extremely solitary species making it difficult to study them in the wild.
•Adult female orangutans and their offspring occupy overlapping ranges that also overlap the ranges of more than one male.
•Orangutan males come in two different adult forms, unflanged and flanged. Unflanged males are the size of females where is flanged males grow protruding flashy jowls, called flanges, and may grow twice as large.
•Have been documented demonstrating cultural differences in tool use and vocalization. 
Gorillas
•Five sub species all are found in Africa.
•Mountain gorillas mostly leaves.
•Like the New World howler monkeys, both male and female gorillas transfer out of the group in which they were born before they start breeding. The transfer, which does not appear forest, they occur more than once in a females life.
•Adult female gorillas may produce three surviving offspring in her lifetime.
•Highly sexually dimorphic in size.
•Dominant male often determines group activity and the direction of travel.
•Immature gorillas are attracted to dominant male, who ordinarily treat them with tolerance and protect them in dangerous situations. 
