Chapter 9

Question 1

What were George Cuvier’s contributions to the early primates?

Answer 1

Identified Adapis parisiensis in 1822, 1st really early primate

Question 2

Why Did Primates Emerge?

Answer 2

Arboreal hypothesis (early 1900s) : adaptations to life in trees
Visual predation hypothesis (Cartmill) : hunting in trees (vision vs. scent)
Angiosperm radiation hypothesis (Sussman) : fruit-eating in the trees (flowering plants beginning to spread)

Question 3

What did primates look like?

Answer 3

Many features of modern primates
Nails not claws
Grasping, opposable first toe
boney bar around side of the eye socket
Vertical clinging and leaping common form of locomotion

Question 4

When did primates emerge?

Answer 4

Plesiadapiforms or archaic primates appear fossil record during Paleocene (begins around 65 mya)
Undisputed primate fossils from Eocene ~ 55 mya = Adapids and Omomyids (1st true primates)

Question 5

Describe Plesiadapiforms

Answer 5

Early Cenozoic (~60 mya)
Western North America, Europe
No postorbital bar or convergent eyes; lacked opposability; claws; small brain; specialized rodent-like teeth
Proprimates

Question 6

Describe Carpolestes

Answer 6

Wyoming: 58 mya. Tropical forest
Primate features: Grasping feet; nail on big toe
Proprimate features: Claws on most digits; nonconvergent eyes

Question 7

Describe and compare Omomyids and Adapids

Answer 7

Omomyids (Lemur-like) • Nocturnal • Short snout

Adapids (Tarsier-like) • Diurnal • Sexually dimorphic

Question 8

Describe the earliest Haplorhines

Answer 8

(Tarsiers, monkeys, apes, humans)
Archicebus ~55 mya
Small, diurnal, arboreal, insectivorous

Question 9

Describe Basal Anthropoids

Answer 9

(monkeys, apes, humans)
Eosimias (dawn monkey), China; 42 myo, Teeth anthropoid-like, Short heel
Biretia, Egypt; 37 myo

Question 10

What changes happen for early anthropoids to evolve and thrive?

Answer 10

Oligocene cooling
Fayum, Egypt (29–37 mya)
Tropical environment
Oligopithecids, 35 mya, Basal anthropoids, Catopithecus
Parapithecids, 2/1/3/3 dental formula
Propliopithecids

Question 11

What early catarrhine is from Egypt?

Answer 11

Aegyptopithecus, Arboreal quadruped, Monkey/ape ancestor

Question 12

Describe the Origin of the Hominoids (Apes)

Answer 12

Proconsulids (17–22 mya)
Y-5 molars (All higher primates of African descent have these), fruit eating (diff strategy to get to these), honing canines
No tail

Question 13

Describe the proconsulid body plan

Answer 13

no tail, but from the neck down very monkey-like.
quadrapedal in the trees + on ground.
Less wrist, shoulder, + elbow mobility than modern apes.
Smaller hands
Arms relatively shorter
Rib cage was deep, like a monkey’s

Question 14

Describe Dryopithecids

Answer 14

Expansion out of Africa in Middle Miocene (~15–18 mya)
Europe: Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Turkey
Teeth like proconsulids
Body like modern apes

Question 15

Describe Sivapithecids

Answer 15

Pakistan and India (8-12 mya)
Thick enamel on teeth; hard-food eater
Orangutan-like skull; proconsulid-like body

Question 16

Describe the origin of the African Apes

Answer 16

Late Miocene - Cooling and drying
Forests recede - Grasslands and woodlands
African apes from Europe? - Ouranopithecus