Chapter 5 Studying Primates Flashcards
Phonology
A similar trait found in different species because it was inherited from a common ancestor
Analogy
A similar trait found in different species that arose independently
What is a class relationship?
A grouping based on ancestral relationships; a branch of the evolutionary tree.
African Clade?
A grouping that includes gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and their extinct relatives.
Asian Clade?
A grouping that includes orangutans and their extinct relatives.
What are grades?
Groupings that reflect levels of adaptation or overall similarity and not necessarily relationships. Grouping monkeys and excluding humans.
Ancestral traits
Inherited trait from a distant ancestor.
Derived traits
A recently modified trait that is most helpful when assigning taxonomic classifications.
What are generalized traits
A trait that is useful for a wide range of tasks
Opposable thumbs
Fingers and thumbs that can work in opposing directions to stretch and grab is a generalized trait.
Specialized trait?
A trait which has been modified for a specific purpose. Hooves on a horse.
Postorbital bar
A bony ridge that surrounds the eye socket, open at the back.
Postorbital plate
A bony plate that provides protection to the back and side of the eye.
Postorbital closure
A bony plate that provides protection to the side and back of the eye.
Trichromatic color vision
Ability to distinguish yellows, reds, in addition to blues and greens.
Tetrachromatic
Ability to see reds, yellows, blues, greens, and ultraviolet. Birds fish and reptiles.
Dichromatic
Only see in blues and greens
Evolutionary trade-offs
When an organism, which is limited in the time and energy it can put into aspects of its biology and behavior, is shaped by natural selection to invest in one adaption at the expense of another.
Life history
The pace at which an organism grows, responds, and ages.
Arboreal
A description for an organism that spends most of its time in trees.
Pentadactyly
Having five finger or toes/digits
Terrestrial
An organism that spends most of its time on the ground
Tactile pads
Sensitive skin at the tips of the fingers allowing for the feeling of touch- there is also a tactile pad on the underside of animals tails.
Heterodont
Have multiple types of teeth used for different purposes.
Sexually dimorphic
Sex differences in morphology, behavior, hormones; an/or coloration.
Frugivores
Diet consists primarily of fruit
Insectivores
Diet consists mostly of insects
Folivores
Those who eat mostly leaves
Gummivores
Specialize in eating saps and gums
Bunodont
Low rounded cusps on the cheek teeth.
Shearing crests
Sharpened ridges that connect cusps on a bilophodont molar. Allow foliviovores to break down leaves with their teeth.
Activity pattern
Refers to the time of day an animal is typically active
Diurnal
Active during the day
Nocturnal
Active at night
Cathemeral
Active through the 24-hour period
Locomotion
How an organism moves around
Vertical clinging and leaping
Locomotor pattern in which animals are oriented upright while clinging to vertical branches, push off with hind legs, and land oriented upright in vertical branch.
Quadrepalism
Walking on all 4’s
Brachiation
Swinging below branches by the hands of
Prehensile tails
A tail that is able to hold the full body weight of an organism, which often has a tactile pad on the underneath side for improved grip.
Bipedalism
Moving on two feet
Rhinariums
Wet nosed stepsirrhines- cats and dogs
Tapetum lucidum
Reflective layer at the back of the eye that reflects light and enhances the ability to see in low light.
Fovea
Depression in the retina at the back of the eye containing concentrations of cells that allow them to see things very close up in great detail.
Dry nose
Present in haplorrhines because they can see better and need their nose less.
Faunivorous
Diet consisting entirely of animal matter
Monochromatic
Cannot distinguish any colors
Ischial callosities
Modified seat bones of the pelvis that are flattened and over which calluses form; function as seat pads for sitting and resting atop branches
Natal coats
Refers to the contrasting fur color of baby leaf monkeys compared to adults.
Olecranon process
Bony projection at the elbow end of the ulna
Styloid process
A bony projection of the ulna at the end near the wrist.
Sagittarius crest
A bony ridge along the top/middle of the skull used for attachment of chewing muscles of orangutans
Male bimaturism
Alternative reproductive strategies in orangutans in which males can delay maturation, sometimes indefinitely, u til a fully mature “flanged” male disposers.
Ethnoprimatology
Subarea of anthropology that studies the complexities of human primate relationships in the modern environment
