ANTHROPOLOGY 1(THE LIVING PRIMATES)

Lecture 5

PRIMATOLOGY• Is the study of primates

• Understand how different primates have adapted to their environment

• Analyze the behavioral and evaluation of the human primates

Classifications of Primates

2 Major Decent1. Prosimians

Lemurs, tarsiers, lorises

2. Anthropoids Monkeys, apes, hominids

Classifications of Primates

Suborders of Anthropoids1. Platyrrhines (Monkeys of the New World)

2. Catarrhines Cercopithecoids (Old World Monkeys) Homicides (Apes and Humans)

ANTHROPOID APES• Hylobates

Gibbons Siamangs

• Orangutans• Gorillas• chimpanzees

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMATES

1. 2 bones in lower part of the leg and forearm

2. Collarbone3. Grasping hands4. Stereoscopic vision5. Large brain

6. Long maturation of the young

7. Degree of dependents on social life and learning

DISTINCTIVE HUMAN TRAITS

1. Only humans can walk erectly with 2 feet

2. Bipedal3. Large and complex brain 4. Omnivorours (molars and pre- molars are so specialized)

5. Have chins6. Relatively hairless7. Sexuality of human females8. Spoken symbolic language

PRIMATE EVALUATION• Requires the findings and

evaluation of fossil remains

• Fossil records are still incomplete

• Certainty of how primates evolved

2 General ways to date fossils

• Using stratigraphy and associated flora and fauna

• Certain chemical test in the sites

What can we learn from fossils?

• Can tell about an extinct animals

• Comparative anatomy to help reconstruct missing skeletal pieces

• Much of the evidence comes from the teeth along with the jaws.

The Early Primates• Earliest primates appear in North

America, Europe, and Asia about 55 million years ago.

• The beginning of Eocene was warmer and less seasonal than the Paleocene

• Tropical forest abounded

The Early PrimatesAnatomy of the Eocene

Primates had many of the features of modern primates• Nails rather than claws• Grasping• Opposable first toe and bony around the side

of the eye socket• Vertical clinging and leaping

Eocene prosimians not only moved around the way modern prosimians do some were similarly skeletally to living prosimians

The group of prosimians appear in the early Eocene.

• Omymyids• Have many tarsier like features• Very small• No bigger than squirrels

• Adapids• Have many lemur like features• Kitten-and cat-sized

The Emergence of Anthropoids

• The anthropoids today- Monkeys, apes, and humans are the most successful living primates.

• Fossil record documenting the emergence of the anthropoids• Scarce• No clear records

What conditions may have favored the emergence of the primates?

• Proliferation of insects to an increase in insectivores

• Mammals that ate the insects• Some lived above the ground• In woody habitat of bushes, shrubs, vines and

trees.

• Trees with large flowers and fruits evolved

• Exploitation in the woody habitat was probably the key adoption in the emergence of primates

The Miocene Anthropoids: Monkeys, Apes and Hominids

• During Miocene Epoch• 24 years ago• Monkeys and apes clearly diverged in

appearance• Numerous kinds appread in Asia, Europe, and

Africa.

• Early Miocene Epoch• Temperature was considerately warmer than

in the Oligocene

• Late Miocene Epoch• Conditions become drier• About 8 mya the first hominid may have

appeared in Africa

• The influence about were hominids emerged is based on the fact that undisputedly hominids lived in East Asia.

• The inference is based not on the fossil evidence but on comparative molecular and biochemical analyses of modern apes and humans.

Early Miocene• Most of the fossils are described as proto-

apes.

Middle Miocene to late Miocene• The apes diversified and spread

geographically• Dryopithecus (Europe)• Sivapithecus (Western Southern Asia)

• Fossil records does not tell us who the first hominid was

• the biochemical and genetic analyses of modern apes and humans suggest that the hominid-ape split occurred during the late Miocene (6 mya)