Primates and Primatology Flashcards
Name the distinctive features of mammals
- hair- fur
- sweat glands
- mammary glands (milk production)
- 3 middle ear bones
- specialised teeth
- 4 chamber heart
- neocortex in brain (outer layer involved with cognitive ability)
Name the characteristics of primates
- clavicle (allows for arm movements/living in trees, locomotion)
- opposable thumbs (ability to grasp, precision grip)
- fingernails
- binocular and colour vision
- generalised dentition (allows omnivore diet)
- slow reproductive rates (lower fertility rates than expected for size)
- larger brains than expected for body weight
Name different classes of primates
- prosimians
- Tarsiers
- Platyrrhines (New world monkeys)
- cercopithecines
- colobines
- Apes
Describe Madagascan Prosimians (including examples
Examples:
- Brown ruffed Lemue (Varecia rubra)
- Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)
- Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascarensis)
- Mouse Lemur (Lemur pusillus)
Characteristics:
- small size
- eat insects/fruit
- mainly solitary
- most ancient
- rely on smell so have snout/muzzle
- specialised glands
- Aye Aye are solitary
- in Lemurs, females are dominant
- most are nocturnal
- Males home-ranges larger than female‘s
Describe African and Asian Prosimians
Examples:
- Angwantibo (Arctocebus spp.)
- Lorises (Loris spp.)
- Potto (Perodicticus spp.)
- Bushbabies (Galago spp.)
Describe Tarsiers
- south eastAsoa
- endangered
Describe Platyrrhines
- South and Central America
- members of the group help to raise offspring of dominant couple
- see world in 2 colours
Examples:
- marmosets
- tamarins (saguinus spp.)
- Capuchins (Cebus spp.)
Characteristics:
- Variable body size
- Dichromatic vision
- Group-living- often cooperative breeders
- Mostly diurnal
- Variable social systems (harems, multi-male multi-female)
- Capuchins: „chimpanzees of America“
Describe Cercopithecines
- Africa and Asia
- varied diet
- multiple males and females in groups
- multi-chambered stomach
Examples:
- Baboons (papio spp.)
- Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)
- Macaques (Macaca spp.)
Describe Colobines
- Africa and Asia
- 1 male unit
- Infanticide occurs
Examples:
- colobes
- leaf-momekeys
- snub-nosed monkeys
Describe Apes
- larger brain
- live during day
Examples:
- Gibbons
Orang-utangs
- gorillas
- chimpanzees
- Bonobos
- Humans
Discuss different ways of studying primates
- Observation vs experiments
- Field vs captivity
Name advantages and disadvantages of studying primates in capivity
- advantage- can con tool extraneous variables such as diet and interaction
- disadvantage- behaviour will not necessarily be ecological relevant
What is adaptation
- characteristics that improve an organism‘s chances for survival and/or reproduction
- functional traits passed down through the next generations
- maintained through evolution and selection
Describe the process of selection
- variation present amongst individuals (due to genes)
- selective pressures- affect ability to survive and reproduce e.g.:
- biotic environment (climate/habitat/substrate),
- biotic environment (food, predators, diseases, other species, attraction, competition- intraspecific)
- some individuals survive and others don’t
What are the mechanisms of selection in natural vs sexual selection
- natural- survival and reproduction
- sexual- reproduction
outline genetic drift
- bottleneck- only few individuals survive- distribution of characteristics change
What are 3 factors needed for adaptation/selection
- variation in traits
- heritability of traits
- selective pressures
Name different domains of primate adaptations/functional traits and the selective pressure that causes the,
- limbs- habitat
- teeth- diet
- sense/brain- food/diurnal life/ sociality
- life history (birth, death etc)- large brain 9developmental and energetic constraints)
What are homologous chatracteristics
Present in a common ancestor
What are analogous characteristics
- present in some apes/primates (not common ancestor)
- caused by convergent evolution (e.g. birds and bats both developed wings)
- evolved later in humans
- aka homoplasy
What does the comparative approach allow
- Identification of correlated factors
- Build evolutionary theories e.g. look at skull shape from fossil evidence- can understand evolutionary history e.g. when specific organisms walked
- Infer selective processes (e.g. how behaviour is shaped by social and environmental conditions)
- Infer events of convergent evolution
Outline primate limbs and locomotion
- hand/feet- high prehensility
- 5 digits
- opposable thumb- allows hook to swing from branch ti branch, also use tail
- divergent and partially posable big toe
- nails instead of Claws
- tactile pads with enriched sensory nerves of digits tips- precision of manipulation of objects
–> 55 million years ago then lineage of primates emerged, had to rely more on catching preys- had to find fruit in trees - presence of clavicle- mobile arms and shoulders- pre-adaptation for tool use
Outline differing locomotion in primates
- clinging/leaping e.g. galago
- quadrupedalism e.g. lemurs
- brachiation- hangers e.g. spider monkeys
- bipedalism
Outline the comparative approach in terms of primate limbs and locomotion
- can compare skeletons e.f. of arboreal and terrestrial- terrestrial has stretched upper limbs whereas arboreal is using low strides- different behaviour results in morphological differences e.g. relative length of bones
- can compare hand shapes and bones etc- link between bone structure and locomotion- can infer locomotion of evolutionary ancestors
Describe primate diet and teeth
- generalised dentition- adapted to diverse diet- lack of specialisation
- baboons and chimpanzees omnovorse- leaves, seeds etc
- some more specialisations:
- cercopithecines- frugivores (fruits)
- colobines/gorlias- folivores (leaves/grass)- specialised multiplee chambers
- some prosimians- insectivores (arthropods)
- due to changes in gut and teeth
Describe the comparative approach in relation to diet and teeth
- distantly related primates- similar diet associated with certain tooth form
- similarity in characteristics corresponds to convergent evolution (homoplacy) and adaptive characteristics
Describe variationn in primate teeth which isn’t to do with diet
- sexual dimporphism- occur differently in male and females of same species e.g. short vs long k9s in makkaks
- different teeth length due to competition
Describe primates neural adaptations
- allometric scaling- compare brain size relative to body size- most allocated above allometric line
- general law is that correlates with body size, adaptation is when above/below
Describe primates sensory adaptations
- Rely on vision rather than olfaction- reduced snout, flat nose, reduction of olfaction brain structures
- morphological adaptations- skull, eyes, brain
- Colour vision (2/3)
- stereotypic vision (3D, right nd left visual fields cross)- allows to live in trees, catch insects to side
- forward facing eyes
describe the primate life history
Lite hosiery is timing and pace of major life events:
gestation - birth- growth- maturation- reproduction- senescence- death (no menopause)
describe adaptation in the primate life history
- slow reproductive rates and fertility rates greater longevity
- large brains causes slow maturation and growth, which therefore causes slow life history
describe consequences of the slow life history in primates
- Intense parental/maternal care
- Great dependence on flexible learned behaviour e.g. orangoutangs from mothers
- Life in social groups
- Mostly diurnal
- Stable groups
- Long-term relationships
- Cooperation
- Overlapping generations
- Social learning, cultures
outline biological classification
- taxonomy- description, identification, nomenclature and classification of organisms
- Carl Linnaeus- 18th century
- based on common characteristics
- DMPCOFGS
outline species
- 180-300 primate species
- definitions- either cant reproduce (biological barrier), cant meet (geographic barrier), sometimes unclear- hybrids e.g. humans and neadrathals
Describe Cercopithecines and Colobines characteristics
- Variable body size
- Group-living
- Hierarchical dominance
- Female philopatry
- Variable social systems
(harems, multi-male multi-female) - Strictly diurnal
- Sexual dimorphism
- Colobines: folivores, „cow“ stomach, harem systems, infanticide common
-Cercopithecines: frugivores/omnivores, cheek pouches, multi-male multi- female, female sexual swellings (not in guenons)
describe characteristics of lesser apes
- Gibbons and Siamangs
- No tail Monogamous
- Duet song
- Male and female dispersal
- Strictly diurnal
- Brachiation
ape characteristics
List the requirements of a primates diet
Provides energy for growth and essential elements for locomotion and nutrition
- carbohydrates- sugar
- amino acids
- fat/oil- energy storage
- vitamins/minerals
- water
- AVOID- toxins incl. tannins, caffein, alkaloids
Where do primates obtain required nutritional elements from
- carbohydrates- fruits, seeds, gum
- proteins- young leaves, arthropods, animal preys
- fat and oil- seeds, animal preys
- vitamins and minerals- fruits, animal preys, geophagy (earth elements e.g. clay/rocks)
- water- food, tree holes, water holes
Describe how primates can get access to water from tree holes
- tool use- fluid dipping- wooden sticks- chew end (used by chimpanzees), also used for honey
- leaf sponges
outline other feeding strategies in primates
- sits on branches and pushes ground to get termites and ants
- nut cracking- pounding techniques, Woden hammer
- tortoise pounding- Catcha and kill tortoises to extract meat
- oyster cracking in long tail macaques
–> use of social learning
–> similar techniques across species
Outline the influence of colour and stereotypic vision on feeding strategies
- some can see in 2/3 colours
- colour vision allows to see varying degrees of brightness of fruits
- can see in 3D- can capture moving oral and move in trees
Outline the influence of colour and stereotypic vision on feeding strategies
- shape of teeth adapted to certain diets
- longer dinger in aye-aye
Outline frugivory (what it is, competeition, issues)
- eat mostly fruits
- fruits are source of sugars and carbohydrates
- resources worth fighting for
- issues- patchy and seasonal distribution/production, Hugh unpredictability, monopolisable, variation between years as well as within
- causes contest completion due to clumped resources- resources are scarce and valuable
- vertical distribution of fruits and ripeness- causes vertical contest competition- best fruits at top (as sunlight)- female chimpanzees that are dominant can have highest reach in trees
Outline folivory
- eat leaves and grass
- provides source of fibres and proteins
- scramble competition as resources evenly dispersed- once fid, eat as much as can
- resources not worth fighting over, no direct competition
- hard to monopolise
- issues- secondary components, hard to digest, toxic- so developed stomach with multiple chambers
Outline insectivory (what it is, competition, issues)
- source of proteins and fat
- moving preys- harder to catch
- scramble competition
- means occupy different heights- niche partitioning
Outline movements influenced by food availability and distribution
- depending on how much food availability, have different travelling distance
- travel less during day in times of low food availability
Outline fission-fusion (troops) influenced by food availability and distribution
Chimpanzees:
- party size changes
- when low food, party size decreases
Outline resource defence influenced by food availability and distribution
- core area defence- more food in core
- food patch defence- no difference between food in core and periphery
- boundary defence- more food in periphery
- size of core vs periphery area and different stability of resources affects formation
Outline spatial memory effected by food acquisition
- primates need too remember location of feeding sites so can return to certain areas ay certain seasons
- can map routes taken by primates- if know location, shoudlnrtravel in direct line at greater speed, rather than trial and error
Outline niche partitioning
- partition selves
- differ in food specialisation
- sympatric species
- allows to form large groups of multiple species- interspecific associations
outline anticipation in primates
- e.g. anticipate eating figs at first time of day
- leave earlier to site in order to be first at trees- leave first for fogs as most sought after
Outline interspecific associations
- improves foraging efficiency as can occupy strata in first that dent usually occupy
- increase of arthropod intake when in association- broader niche
name predators of primates
- snakes
- birds
- cats
- humans
- fossa
- Komodo dragons
- dogs
name anti predation strategies
- grouping- dilution effect (Hugh number of potential targets), confusion effects (leave in many different directions)- interspecific association
- sleeping sites- nests building (apes), cliff sleeping sites (lemurs, geladas)
- alarm call systems- inform other animals and others in group
Responses cam be differential e.g. for leopards use referential alarm calls and climb trees, whereas for eagles use referential alarm calls and go down from trees
alarm call systems graphs
type of calls different for each type of predator
Outline the co-evolution principle (ecological importance of primates)
- Reciprocal evolutionary changes between pairs of species or groups as they interact with one another
- angiosperm co-evolution hypothesis-our primate ancestors evolved key adaptations like forward-facing eyes, excellent colour vision, rounded, blunt teeth and fingers without claws, all for the purpose of eating and living from fruits
outline the visual predation hypothesis
forward-facing eyes and grasping hands evolved in primates to allow them to eat insects in trees
describe other ecological importances of primates
- seed dispersal- pre dispersal, dispersal, and post dispersal
- high percentage of seeds are not desyroyed- all primate wither spit or swallow seeds away from original tree- causes tree growth in different areas
- prefer to groom in open areas away from trees- causes greater dispersal
- NWM + OWM specialized in colourful fruits with flesh with seeds easy to swallow
- High number of seeds and species dispersed
- High number of seeds dispersed over long distances
Give details of the life history of primates (including time periods)
- late maturation –> long juvenile period –> long maternal investment (lactation, carrying, protection)
- Slow reproduction: average inter-birth interval 2.3 years (max 7-8 years orang-utans)
- Single offspring (max. 2 Callitrichids)
- trade of between longer life and limited number of offspring- invest energy into current offspring rather than next generation
- low adult mortality, long reproductive career, long life span, females outlive males
- Little Mama- died at 79
What is sexual selection
- Selective process acting on behaviour and traits that maximise reproduction (form of natural selection with focus on reproduction rather than survival)
- Trade-off between natural selection and sexual selection adaptive value of traits
Describe intersexual vs intrasexual selection
- InTRA- intimidating, deterring or defeating same sex rivals (competition for sex between members of same sex)
- inTER- making themselves attractive to the opposite sex (mate choice), opposite sex reproductive strategies differ (and compete)- sexual conflict
What do all reproductive strategies do
Maximise lifetime reproductive success
Outline gender-differentiated patterns of sexual selection in males and females
- males are ready to mate most of the time, whereas females are constrained by physiology (gestation/lactation) and maternal care
- thus means there is a limited humber of receptive females
- means that males compete yo access females (male-male competition), and females choose among potential mates (mate choice)