(QUIZ 6) Chapter 2: 18-19 (Eyes and Vision); Chapter 3: 35-43; Chapter 9: 189-190 (Vision)

Question 1

There are several hypotheses regarding adaptive selection for primate traits in mammals.

These include the Arboreal Hypothesis and the Visual Predation Hypothesis.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

All strepsirhine primates are arboreal – haplorhines include the only terrestrial primates.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The most terrestrial strepsirhine is Lemur catta.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Tarsiers and mouse lemurs never come to the ground are among the most arboreal primates.

Answer 4

False

Question 5

Platyrrhines are more arboreal than catarrhines – the most terrestrial platyrrhine is the capuchin monkey.

Answer 5

True

Question 6

Vervets are interesting because their use of arboreal and terrestrial strata is nearly evenly divided.

Answer 6

True

Question 7

African apes have knuckle-walking adaptations and never spend time in the trees.

Answer 7

False

Question 8

One of the problems with the Arboreal Hypothesis is that it fails to recognize that arboreality does not exclude terrestriality.

Answer 8

True

Question 9

One of the problems with the Arboreal Hypothesis is that it implies that all non-primate land mammals are terrestrial.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

The Visual Predation Hypothesis suggests that the earliest primates arose in arboreal mammalian habitats as “stealthy insect hunters.”

Answer 10

True

Question 11

Insectivory was a brand-new adaptation unknown before the appearance of primates.

Answer 11

False

Question 12

The first-known fossil mammals

Answer 12

are known from sites dating to ~210 mya and had high metabolic rates.
had well-development olfactory regions and wonderful masticatory systems allowing insectivory.
are known as Morgonucodonts and weighed less than 500 grams

Question 13

Based on dental cusp size and shape, Morgonucodonts were

Answer 13

Insectivorous

Question 14

Primates, historically, are tropical and evolved in humid forests on every continent in the world.

Answer 14

False

Question 15

The interior of a primary rainforest receives less sunlight than does a secondary rainforest. As a result, fruit quantity and variety tends to be higher in a seconday rainforest.

Answer 15

True

Question 16

Gallery forests are surrounded by transitional zones along wetland marshes and rivers that are highly attractive to Western lowland gorillas and also offer a safe retreat to the trees.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

The savanna mosaic includes sparsely treed grasslands and better treed woodlands – an ideal setting for semiterrestrial cercopithecoids like vervets.

Answer 17

True

Question 18

A number of cercopithecoids have expanded into nontropical habitats which include deciduous forests, montane forests, and urban habitats.

Answer 18

True

Question 19

Using tree surrogates, macaques and sacred langurs have moved into human settlements.

Answer 19

True

Question 20

One problem with the Visual Predation Hypothesis is that it fails to recognize that insectivory is an ancient mammalian adaptation.

Answer 20

True

Question 21

Your instructor hypothesizes that primates were selected for “Hand-to-Mouth Feeding” adaptations

Answer 21

True

Question 22

Unlike other mammals, primates are maladapted for olfactory predation.

Answer 22

True

Question 23

Primate forward-facing eyes with noses below eyes are associated with …

Answer 23

an improved binocular field of vision.

Question 24

Steroscopic vision involves …

Answer 24

the exchange of optic nerve information from each eye at the optic chiasma.
the ability to accurately judge depth and distance
visual cortex conversion of multiple images to a single 3-D image.

Question 25

In comparison to other mammals, primates have a larger olfactory cortex than visual cortex.

Answer 25

False

Question 26

The postorbital bar protects the primate eye – an important feature for visually dependent organisms!

Answer 26

True

Question 27

Primate tactility is enhanced by flattened nails and sensitive Meissner’s corpuscle nerve tissue on digits.

Answer 27

True

Question 28

In nonhuman primates, the divergent big toes allow feet to be used just like hands – a wonderful feeding adaptation.

Answer 28

True

Question 29

Color vision is not listed as a primate adaptations because …

Answer 29

most strepsirhine primates have a primitive mammalian tapetum lucidum but have enough color sensitive cone cells to be dichromatic but not trichromatic.
many “color-blind” non primate mammals are actually dichromatic (for example, dogs have color sensitive cone cells that allow goldish to blueish color perception).
the nocturnal haplorhine owl monkey is monochromatic an only has light sensitive rod cells on their retinal fovea.

Question 30

Haplorhine color-spectrum sensitivity has a broad range of expression. For example, …

Answer 30

all catarrhines are trichromatic – sensitive to red & blue & green.

Question 31

Owl monkey color perception is closer to black-white-grey than is a dog’s color perception range.

Answer 31

True

Question 32

This is a fact (not part of the question) – a recent study has revealed that tarsiers are trichromatic (the only nocturnal mammal with full color vision)!

Here’s the question: Tarsiers, like owl monkeys, have a retinal fovea (not a nocturnally valuable tapetum lucidum) but have larger eyes – each eyeball is larger than the brain!

Answer 32

True

Question 33

Primates are the only mammals that habitually engage in “hand-to-mouth” feeding. They bring their food to their faces – as opposed to taking their faces to their food!

Answer 33

True