Chapter 4 Flashcards
Taxonomy
Primates are an ORDER
Traditional
Prosimians- lemur, loris, tarsier
Anthropoids- humans, lesser/great apes
Modern Cladistic
SEE NOTES
Strepsirhines
Rhinarium attached to nose
Haplorhines
Rhinarium not attached to nose
Platyrrhines
Flat nose, arboreal, prehensile tails, new world.
Catarrhines
Sharp nose, non-prehensile tails, old-world. Both arboreal and terrestrial.
Colobines
Arboreal catarrhines
Cercopithecines
Arboreal and territorial catarrhines
Hominoids
Lesser apes, orangutans, chimps, humans
Brachiation
swinging through trees
Homologous approach
similarity due to common ancestry
Analogous
convergent or parallel evolution (ex: wings on birds and bats, body shapes of fish and whales)
Primate evolutionary trends
- plus brain size/complexity
- minus facial projection
- minus smell
- plus sight
- minus teeth
- plus infant dependence
- plus learned behavior
Prehensile morphology
- opposable thumbs
- nails instead of claws
- pads at tips of fingers/toes
- dermal ridges on toes, fingers, soles, palms, tails
Arboreal theory
Primates adapted to living in trees
Visual predation hypo
Primates evolved to eat insects in tree branches
Mixed diet hypo
Evolved because switched from insects to plants
Phases of Evolution
Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene
Paleocene Epoch
Earliest evidence of primates
Eocene Epoch
- Adapids: lemur-looking
- Omomyids: tarsier-looking
- Anthropoideans: ancestral to later monkeys, apes, and humans
Oligocene Epoch
- Parapithecids: ancestral to New World monkeys
- Propliopithecids: ancestral to all old world monkeys, apes, and humans
Miocene Epoch
- Hominoid diversity
- Success of Old World monkeys
- Hominins: bipedal hominoid
