Study Guide Chapters 5-8

Question 1

General characteristics of primates (what distinguishes them from non-primates)

Answer 1

1. Plesiadapifoms
   - have small brains

• Primates have larger brains than non-primates
• Eyes on the front of the face
• Protecting our eyes
• Long digits
• Nails
• Mobile Shoulders
• Opposable Thumbs (grip)

Question 2

Opposable big toes in primates

Answer 2

Humans do not have the opposable big toe (we are bipedal)

• Non human primates have opposable big toes, other primates are quadrupedal (apes)

Question 3

Where do lemurs live?

Answer 3

Madagascar

Question 4

Two suborders of primates and their noses

Answer 4

Dry Nose vs Wet Nose: Strepsirrhines have wet noses and haplorhines have dry noses. Humans are haplorhines and we have dry noses.

Question 5

Arboreal Adaptations (Important FRQ Question)

Answer 5

A primate with really long forelimbs or arms and short legs, well suited for a forest environment but not successful in grasslands.

• an example would be the development of opposable thumbs, help with grip, arboreal adaptation are the ability of primates to live in trees.

Question 6

Prehensile Tail (monkeys vs apes)

Answer 6

A tail that is adapted for grasping and can hold objects and support the body.

• monkeys have tails and longer spines and apes do not have a tail and shorter spines

Question 7

Bipedal adaptations

Answer 7

humans have a short and wide pelvis and the back of the skull is under rather than behind the skull (more common in quadrupedal primates)

Question 8

Natural Selection

Answer 8

How organisms adapt to the environment for better survivability and reproductive success.

• does not select for a larger body or brain size unless it needs it, will select what the organism benefits from in its environment

Question 9

Sexual Dimorphism

Answer 9

differences in morphology between the two sexes (size or appearance/competition of males)

Question 10

Social Organization of gibbons gorillas and chimpanzees

Answer 10

gibbons have very little competition, they are monogamous, marry one person at a time (do not need to get super big)

gorillas have high sexual dimorphism, males will compete for females, need to be big to compete against other males for multiple females, are POLYGAMOUS harem groups composed of one male and several females.

chimpanzees are POLYGYNANDROUS, one female mate with multiple males and those males mate with multiple females.

Question 11

Kin Selection

Answer 11

the more closely related you are, the more willing the organisms will be able to help one another, you are more likely to help your family than someone random on the street (make more of an effort)

Question 12

Gibbon Social Organization

Answer 12

monogamous, no benefit in being larger as there is no competition for mates

Question 13

Paleontology

Answer 13

The study of fossils

Question 14

Earth’s Age

Answer 14

4.54 billion years, can examine how old earth is through stratification to estimate when different species lived at different times, things higher in strata are younger than those further down in the strata (example of relative dating)

Question 15

Pangea

Answer 15

Supercontinent that slowly separated from Paleozoic (350mya) and then Late Jurrasic (150mya) , Late Cretaceous (70mya) , and Current Position

Question 16

Diet and Carbon Isotopes

Question 17

Foraminifera

Answer 17

Help identify the conditions in which the enclosing sediments are
-high oxygen-18 = low temperature
-low oxygen-18 = high temperature

single celled protist with shells

Question 18

Visual Predation

Answer 18

primates evolved from small insect-eating mammals who lived in bushes found on the forest floor that ate insects that lived on the floor (insectivorous ancestry)

Question 19

Evolution of apes (where?)

Answer 19

The earliest apes diverged from the old world monkeys in africa and expanded out into asia and europe

Question 20

Relative Dating an Absolute Dating (Important FRQ Question)

Answer 20

Relative Dating: An example of relative dating is stratification, which is the study of the different strate on earth, the different layers of earths soil, and it can help us evaluate the different species that lived at different times (estimated ranges of time) not precise dates

Absolute Dating: On the other hand, is more precise and tells a specific age, an example would be carbon dating which gives us a precise numeric age for the carbon carbon-14 or carbon 13, or we can look at the different rings in trees which precisely tells us the age of the tree, this is called dendrochronology.

Question 21

What distinguishes monkeys and apes (think about locomotion)

Answer 21

monkeys have a prehensile tail and a long spine while apes have shorter spines and no tails

Question 22

Melanin

Answer 22

Melanin is what allows us to have the right skin and hair pigmentation that protects us from UV adiation and darker coloration occurs near the equator while light coloration occurs further from the equatior (generally)

Question 23

Rickets

Answer 23

a disease involving mostly infants and young children who had inadequate sunlight exposure associated with a low dietary intake of vitamin D. Bones become soft and deformed from no calcium or phosphorus.

Question 24

Dental pattern of old world higher order primates (you can count your own teeth in a single quadrant)

Answer 24

32 teeth total, a set has 8 teeth, remember 2:1:2:3, humans have two incisors, one canine, two premolars, and three molars

• non honing chewing - humans have teeth that are lined up and will not extent to the other jaw / humans do not have a diastema
• long canine primates (chimp/gorilla/old world monkeys: have long canine, extents onto opposite jaw, have space on other side to allow bite on back teeth caleld a diastema

Question 25

polygamous / polygyny

Answer 25

one male and multiple females

Question 26

polyandry

Answer 26

one woman married to several men

Question 27

monogamous

Answer 27

one male and one female

Question 28

polyandrous

Answer 28

one female and multiple males (compete through sperm competition and select larger testicle size)

Question 29

Examples of strepsirrhines and examples of haplorhines

Answer 29

strepsirrhines: Lemurs, Lorises, Galagos (moist noses)

haplorhines: humans, old and new world monkeys, apes, tarsiers (dry noses)

Question 30

polyandrous resident pattern

Answer 30

the males invest time into the offspring with the female (males spend time with females)

Question 31

primate reproductive strategies

Answer 31

the females get resources for their offspring before other competition, mate with multiple mates to confuse who the dad is, and mate with multiple males is a reproductive strategy.

-Because the reproductive physiology of male and female primates differs (males produce sperm and cannot gestate or lactate; females produce eggs and gestate and lactate), males and females differ with regard to parental investment and sexual selection strategies. Female strategies, on the one hand, focus on obtaining the food necessary to sustain a pregnancy and choosing the best male(s) to father offspring. Male strategies, on the other hand, focus on obtaining access to receptive females.